CUPRA EKS driver Tom Blomqvist put a low-speed out-lap spin behind him to take the Pool FAST pole position at Sachenring for Race DE whilst title-contending team-mate Mattias Ekström went second fastest as the season-finale to the FIA ETCR eTouring Car World Cup got underway.
Race DE Pool FAST Qualifying Times (Combined)
Blomqvist’s half spin – – caused by a rear wheel locking mechanism being left on – was sufficient wake-up at a cold and crisp Saschsenring to vault the British-born Swede from second-from-last in the order in Q1 to fastest in Q2 with a 1m 28.132s lap, just over a tenth faster than Ekström.
Fastest in Q1, Romeo Ferraris driver Maxime Martin could only manage a small improvement in his lap time with a scrappy lap come Q2, leaving him fourth and with the Pool FAST Quarter Final Two pole. Making a better improvement from Q1 to Q2 was Martin’s team-mate, Giovanni Venturini, setting the third fastest time overall.
Race DE Pool FAST Qualifying One Times
It was a qualifying session to forget for Hyundai Motorsport N. Jean-Karl Vernay was slowest in both Q1 and Q2 whilst Nicky Catsburg was unable to improve sufficiently on his P2 in Q1 and ended up P5 in Q2 and the combined times.
Race DE Pool FAST Qualifying Two Times
Pool FAST Quarter Final One Grid
Pool FAST Quarter Final Two Grid
Tom Blomqvist CUPRA EKS
It was a bit of a wake up call this morning! I need a car that’s pretty decent and my lap in Q1 was just not great. It’s been getting better and better with each lap so I was able to get a bit more performance out of out of the car with the second run so I’m happy with that. Mattias was second, so obviously from that perspective it’s a nice start.
Mattias Ekström CUPRA EKS
It’s always great fun battling with everyone and especially in qualy. We put it on the line and Tom did a totally awesome job so congrats to him. I was trying to nail a lap, but when you have only two attempt it’s not so easy, but we’re happy with one and two from me and Tom. It’s a long weekend to go with the Quarter Final later on today and tomorrow more action again so the weekend still young.
Giovanni Venturini Romeo Ferraris
Qualifying went well with P3 at the end. I improved a lot between Q1 and Q2, but I’m still learning the track so we will see what will happen in the races. I’m confident the car is good and the team did a brilliant job.
Maxime Martin Romeo Ferraris
It was a good Q1 with a good lap and then Q2 I did quite a few mistakes and one really big mistake, so I still improved my lap but not enough. I think we had the pace to be to be on pole, it’s part of the game when you only have one lap. It’s really tight and it’s really close. So a good job by all the others. And now we will have to fight to come back to the semi final one and try to go high.
Nicky Catsburg Hyundai Motorsport N
Qualifying was disappointing in the end. It was very promising after the first run, I was quite convinced I would easily be in the top three but then somehow everyone went way faster in the second run. The car wasn’t great on the second run, we had too much understeer so I lost some performance there but honestly, the car was way better in the window than yesterday, way more comparable to the rest of the season so now we can work on the set-up a little bit and improve the car for Pool Furious’ Qualifying. I’m convinced we can do a good race; I need to kick Maxime’s ass and progress to the next group.
Jean-Karl Vernay Hyundai Motorsport N
Qualifying didn’t go as we wanted, it was difficult. We are losing a lot in the first sector, which is bad as sector two and three was good, especially on my first lap but the time we lose at the start is hard to make up. I was hoping to improve on my second run but it was difficult to warm up the tyre and I went straight, so even if I improved we lost too much time. It’s not where we wanted to be and it’s hard to find a positive.
