Bottas takes pole, championship lead after Qualifying in Dubai

Valtteri Bottas will start tomorrows opening round of the 2012 FF2M Asia Pacific Championship from pole position after an exhilarating Qualifying Session at the Dubai Autodrome today.

The Finnish rookie was lying in 21st place on the grid after his first run, but decided to wait until the rest of the field had set their second laps before making his victorious second run.

Paul Di Resta had set the pace on the first run, as the cars found their limit on the dusty desert track, before Danish Racing’s Rio Haryanto was able to lap one hundredth of a second quicker on his final run.

Kevin Magnussen will start a disappointing thirteenth for STV Racing after being baulked by OLM Racing’s Oliver Turvey shortly after setting a first-sector time quicker than Di Resta’s early benchmark.

Bottas now leads the championship with two points at this early stage going into tomorrow’s feature race.