Giorgio Pantano might have paced free practice earlier in the day, but stepped up another gear from his already astonishing turn of speed to put himself on pole for the second GP2 Series feature race of the season, in Istanbul, on Saturday.
The Italian veteran, now with Racing Engineering, easily claimed top from Piquet Sport's Andreas Zuber, who also carried his morning performance into qualifying, and returnee Adam Carroll, who defied his lack of experience with the new GP2 Dallara to fill the inside of row two.
Pantano's pace was untouchable as he smashed the 1min 33secs barrier, setting a target of 1min 32.659secs on his final lap to beat his own time and put himself even further ahead of the competition. Zuber was more than two tenths off the pace, while Ulsterman Carroll another two tenths further back.
As usual, the pace improved throughout the half-hour session, with the final two minutes running at a fever pitch. Unfortunately for Davide Valsecchi, the pace was a
little too much, and the Italian lost his Durango car at the end of the back straight and ploughed straight into the tyre barrier.
The following Pantano reported that his fellow countryman didn't appear to have slowed at all before running deep into the tyre wall. Despite it being a nasty looking crash, Dallara's good work did its job and the car seems to have taken the brunt of the impact, leaving Valsecchi appearing to have escaped serious injury. He was taken to the medical centre for a compulsory check, however, and was advised to miss Saturday's race.
The session took place under large, ominous-looking clouds, with the teams receiving a forecast of further rain to come after
Formula One practice was hit by the wet stuff. Given this information, every driver was immediately out on track, looking for banker laps just in case the rain came early. Pantano was immediately on the pace, setting a 1min 37.757secs benchmark on his first full lap and then chipping away at it each time around.
![Giorgio Pantano - Racing Engineering [pic credit: GP2 Series]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/432057.jpg)
