CUPRA EKS driver Jordi Gené put local knowledge and experience to good effect in the Pool FAST qualifying sessions with a fastest lap over half a second ahead of his nearest rival at Circuit de Madrid Jarama-RACE for the third round of the FIA ETCR eTouring Car World Cup.
Gené was only fifth fastest first time out with a 1m 38.810 time, but blitzed it at his second attempt with a 1m 37.123s lap. Second fastest at the end of the two runs was fellow CUPRA EKS Adrien Tambay with a 1m 37.395s set in Q1, whilst Romeo Ferraris driver Bruno Spengler, with a 1m 37.723s tour, set the third fastest combined time.
Pool FAST Q2 Times
Pool FAST Q1 Times
Combined FAST Qualifying Times
Jordi Gené CUPRA EKS
It was a super lap. I took a lot of risk in every braking point because I realized on the previous lap that by going smooth and cautious the lap time was not there. So I just put everything together and I have to thank everybody on the team for giving me such a good car and such a good information so I could nail it all together for my first pole position so I’m extremely extremely, extremely happy!
Adrien Tambay CUPRA EKS
I screwed the lap. There was more grip on the second attempt and I didn’t manage to take advantage of it. I had two big mistakes but nevertheless I’m happy for Jordi. Now we need to nail every heat to try to score as many points as possible; the weekend is long.
Bruno Spengler, Romeo Ferraris
Generally speaking, I think we can be happy with the improvement from Friday to Saturday. Again, the team has had a really good ability to react from one day to the other. They really did a great job from yesterday to today the car was a lot better in qualy. I think there are still some things to investigate and analyze to come closer to CUPRA as they to be very, very strong on this tracking. So we have to keep digging, keep investigating, but already a big improvement thanks to everybody. And now we keep pushing to get some good points in the races.
Luca Filippi, Romeo Ferraris
It was a good morning. Unfortunately my second lap was was more messy than the first. So P5 I think is not the potential of the car. But I have a good feeling and we can have a good weekend starting from there. So starting from quarter final, we have to try and win the battle.
Norbert Michelisz, Hyundai Motorsport N
Qualifying was ok from a driving point of view. I didn’t make big mistakes, which is never easy when you start the day jumping into Qualifying. We were a bit off the pace, which from the inside is a bit tricky to understand because the lap felt good. We are missing a bit of lap time, which isn’t a great feeling when you don’t really know where the gap is coming from. Throughout the next Qualifying, we plan to make some changes on the car for Nicky and Mikel driving, so I think there is a possibility to gain information about where to improve. There is still a good possibility to score good points but my feeling is we need to improve pace to be competitive in the Quarter and Semi Final.
Jean-Karl Vernay, Hyundai Motorsport N
Yesterday didn’t help, as I missed out on some track time with an issue and the fact that I am inexperienced here didn’t help at all. This morning everything was brand new to me. The level is super high, everyone else was more prepared than I was. It was just too difficult. We are off the pace and definitely I was not feeling I could push 100%. I didn’t have the confidence, it takes a few laps to build that at a new circuit.
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