Davide Valsecchi was not to be denied his first GP2 pole position today at the Yas Marina Circuit in the first qualifying session of the third season of the GP2 Asia Series. Dominant this morning during free practice, the iSport ace continued to set the pace this afternoon and claimed pole position with a best lap time of a 1:51.964 after only four laps.

The track temperature rose to 44 degrees C as the pitlane opened and soon rookie Alexander Rossi at Ocean Racing set the pace but was soon denied the top spot by the man of the hour, Valsecchi who, on his first flying lap went quickest. Roldan Rodriguez (Scuderia Coloni), Diego Nunes (Meritus) and the impressive Fabio Leimer (Ocean Racing) successively, though briefly, bettered the Italian's time, but Valsecchi would not let them shine and soon reclaimed his position at the head of the timesheets.

One man could have stopped Valsecchi's run for glory: countryman Meritus' Luca Filippi - who set the quickest lap-time last week during the pre-season tests - moved up to third place at mid-session, but right after he crossed the start/finish line his car suddenly slowed to a stop at Turn 19 following a gearbox selection problem.

Behind Valsecchi, Sam Bird (ART) continued to display a strong GP2 debut performance ahead of Leimer, while Filippi - although he missed half of the session - managed to qualify fourth. He is followed by Rodriguez, Rodolfo Rodriguez (Arden), James Jakes (Super Nova), Johnny Cecotto (Trident) and Josef Kral in the second Super Nova car. On his ultimate attempt and under the chequered flag, Giacomo Ricci (DPR) slipped into tenth place.