Jakes grabs last gasp pole at Hockenheim

The British driver posted his quickest time of 1:46.559 on his last flying lap putting him four tenths of a second ahead of second place man Status GP's Robert Wickens. The exciting session in Germany was the first wet qualifying this season making it a challenging session for the 30 GP3 drivers, with many struggling to get to grips with the slippery conditions at turn 1.

James Jakes, (GBR, Manor Racing) in the press conference. Credit: Drew Gibson/GP3 Media

It was RSC Mucke Motorsport's Renger van der Zande who set the early pace straight out the box. The Dutch driver was unmatched for the first half of the session, only briefly being knocked off the top spot by MW Arden's Michael Christensen. Jenzer Motorsport's Nico Muller and Christensen's teammate Leonardo Cordeiro were also on a good pace in the opening minutes of the session.

At the half way marker the drivers seemed to have found their rhythm and the times started to drop. ART Grand Prix's Esteban Gutierrez and Wickens were soon to join the fight for pole position, along with Manor Racing's Quaife-Hobbs. Gutierrez held the top spot for the middle of the session fending off the rest of the field. Carlin drivers Dean Smith and Josef Newgarden were the next drivers to join the fray, but it was the final few minutes of the session as the track got dryer when the battle really begun.

Wickens set the target for the rest of the field, and was soon swapping fastest laps with Jakes. The last minute of the session saw the top spot continually changing, and it looked like Roberto Merhi was going to claim the top spot for Atech CRS GP when he piped Jakes on his last flying lap. But the Spaniard wasn't the only driver on a flyer and in the next few seconds Wickens and then Jakes took the honours.

By the time the chequered flag dropped Josef Newgarden had put his Carlin car in third spot behind Jakes and Wickens pushing Merhi down into fourth. Adrian Quaife-Hobbs took fifth spot followed by Christensen in sixth. Tech 1 Racing's Daniel Juncadella put his #28 car in seventh spot and early pace setter van der Zande ended up in eight. Rounding out the top ten were the final Manor Racing car of Rio Haryanto and Series leader Gutierrez.

However, twenty-one penalties picked up during yesterday's practice session will certainly affect this morning's results and Jakes will probably not maintain his pole position. The action continues later today at 17:20 local time with Race 1.

Full practice results:

Pos No  Driver            Team                   Time     Laps Gap

1    7  J. JAKES          Manor Racing           1:46.559  15  
2    4  R. WICKENS        Status Grand Prix      1:46.954  17  0.395
3   14  J. NEWGARDEN      Carlin                 1:47.176  16  0.617
4   29  R. MERHI          Atech CRS GP           1:47.286  15  0.727
5    9  A. QUAIFE-HOBBS   Manor Racing           1:47.334  16  0.775
6   20  M. CHRISTENSEN    MW Arden               1:47.422  17  0.863
7   28  D. JUNCADELLA     Tech 1 Racing          1:47.593  16  1.034
8   11  R. VAN DER ZANDE  RSC Muecke Motorsport  1:47.639  17  1.080
9    8  R. HARYANTO       Manor Racing           1:47.641  15  1.082
10   2  E. GUTIERREZ      ART Grand Prix         1:47.649  15  1.090
11  10  N. MELKER         RSC Muecke Motorsport  1:47.800  16  1.241
12  24  S. TRUMMER        Jenzer Motorsport      1:47.920  15  1.361
13  25  N. MULLER         Jenzer Motorsport      1:47.927  16  1.368
14  27  S. COLETTI        Tech 1 Racing          1:48.058  16  1.499
15  19  M. BORTOLOTTI     Addax Team             1:48.062  16  1.503
16  15  D. SMITH          Carlin                 1:48.078  16  1.519
17  12  T. HEGEWALD       RSC Muecke Motorsport  1:48.199  16  1.640
18  23  P. VARHAUG        Jenzer Motorsport      1:48.245  15  1.686
19   1  A. ROSSI          ART Grand Prix         1:48.316  14  1.757
20  21  M. MONRAS         MW Arden               1:48.459  14  1.900
21  22  L. CORDEIRO       MW Arden               1:48.595  16  2.036
22  26  D. SECHELARIU     Tech 1 Racing          1:48.866  16  2.307
23   6  D. MORAD          Status Grand Prix      1:48.903  13  2.344
24  17  F. GUIMARAES      Addax Team             1:48.918  16  2.359
25   3  P. NUNES          ART Grand Prix         1:48.965  16  2.406
26  18  P. SANCHEZ LOPEZ  Addax Team             1:49.058  14  2.499
27  16  L. FORESTI        Carlin                 1:49.186  15  2.627
28  30  O. OAKES          Atech CRS GP           1:49.246  15  2.687
29   5  I. LUKASHEVICH    Status Grand Prix      1:49.667  16  3.108
30  31  V. GHIRELLI       Atech CRS GP           1:49.906  15  3.347

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