Germany's Nico shines in Qatar

Nico Hülkenberg has lived up to his rising star status after bagging the fastest lap time in Qatar's qualifying session.

He was followed by Campos' Sergio Perez and Vitaly Petrov. The youngest man of the field and youngest driver to ever win a GP2 race bettered his Russian teammate's quickest laptime also in the very last seconds of the session.

On a slippery track, Vitaly Petrov - who had been fastest earlier in Free Practice - looked in really good shape, topping the time sheet for almost the entire qualifications.

Four minutes before the chequered flag, Nico Hülkenberg signed the quickest first sector, but iSport's Al Fardan span at Turn 12 and finished in the gravel bed. The session was then red flagged.

With only 3 minutes and 34 seconds left on the clock, the field went back on the track. The German ace put his head down and snatched the pole position on his very last lap.

A few seconds later, Vitaly Petrov crossed the finish line, but could not better Hülkenberg's time. Sergio Perez stormed soon after that and pushed back his teammate in P3.

Behind the Top 3; Championship leader Kamui Kobayashi recovered in fourth place in his very last lap after a rather difficult session while Piquet's Roldan Rodriguez finished fifth.

Sakon Yamamoto, Javier Villa, Davide Valsecchi, Edoardo Mortara and Jérôme d'Ambrosio complete the Top 10.

The feature race will start tomorrow at 7pm, local time.



Qatar Top 5 Qualifications:

1. Nico Hülkenberg ART Grand Prix 1:35.74 13 laps

2. Sergio Perez Barwa Int. Campos Team 1:36.464 14 laps

3. Vitaly Petrov Barwa Int. Campos Team 1:36.487 14 laps

4. Kamui Kobayashi Dams 1:36.525 13 laps

5. Roldan Rodriguez Piquet GP 1:36.583 14 laps