Bianchi Takes Maiden GP2 Pole Position, in Bahrain

Young Jules Bianchi seems to be on his way of becoming a real hit in the GP2 Series next year. After scoring a podium at his very first start in the GP2 Asia Series for ART Grand Prix, in the United Arab Emirates, the Frenchman powered to the number one spot on the grid of the upcoming Bahrain GP.

Counting for the penultimate event of the season, the Bahrain GP will feature 2 races during the course of this weekend, and the newest member of Ferrari's young drivers development programme will start the first one from pole position. The qualifying win did not come easy though, as the ART Grand Prix driver finished the session only 0.003 seconds ahead of the series' leader Davide Valsecchi.

The battle for pole position was as exciting as ever, with two more high-ranked drivers being in contention for the No 1 spot on the starting grid until the last second of the qualifying session. Ultimately, GP2 veterans Javier Villa and Luca Filippi had to settle for 3rd and 4th respectively, within 0.049 seconds from Bianchi.

Fifth overall was none other than Portuguese racer Alvaro Parente, who recently looked at a season outside the GP2 Series due to sponsorship problems. The overall Top 10 was completed by iSport's Oliver Turvey, DPR's Giacomo Ricci, DAMS' Christian Vietoris, Arden's Charles Pic and Addax' Sergio Perez.

In the overall classification, Valsecchi leads by a massive 19-point margin from his teammate Oliver Turvey, with only 4 races to go. The last round of the current GP2 Asia series will coincide with the Formula One kick-off event in 2010, also in Bahrain (support race for the opening round of the Great Circus).