Round 7 - Zandvoort - Qualifying!Hello and welcome back to Zandvoort! We are here today ready for the qualifying session, after we saw Aston Martin lay down the early gauntlet in Free Practise with Stuart Ingers taking top spot. But now its the turn of the main drivers to show what they can do, and squabble for positions and track space. Enough chatter though, the sun is out once again, and we have a green light from the RD, so off we go!
Once again its a MAC thats out first, as Hunsley heads out onto track to set an early pace.
Spectacularly though, he somehow manages to not set the fastest time of the session. He locks up on the last corner and this means that Karjalainen manages to jump him and take top. Don't think i have ever seen that one before!
Just to confirm what i said above, the shot of Karjalainen crossing the line almost simulatenously with Hunsley to go green and top.
That little squabble is short of interest though, as Rodriguez immediately steps in and destroys Karjalainens time by 8 tenths of a second.
Pederson goes across in his Christel and goes... 3rd? Somehow he is only half a second down and he sits in 3rd?
And an explanantion is quick at hand. Greidanus crosses at pretty much the same time as Pederson and manages to put his Shadow car ahead of everyone.
MAC seemed keen to get both their drives out pretty quickly, as both drivers are in the first 6 out. Hinz manages better than Hunsley and goes 4th.
Greenhalgh looks to continue the success that AMR have had this weekend, and he does a good job, putting his car into 1st place.
Jalving behind him though goes toe-to-toe with the Aston driver though! Thats incredibly close from the MPR driver, but he can only manage 2nd.
Cartwright is the next man to step up to the plate and set a time. He can only grab 5th, and there are a lot of drivers to go yet.
Although Vilela who comes in next can't knock him off, he puts his ART car right behind in 6th place.
Elleker looking to build on his points in the last race, and so far he sits in a points paying position. 8th place for his Christel.
Aleksander, winner of the last round in France doesn't seem to be able to emulate his success here so far, only 9th place. I hope he hasn't has the same meal as Kederer...
The RD goes from a new view of the TNR this session, getting a nice rear shot, as Sheppard shoots passed and gets himself into 8th place.
Maverick is the next man through. And oh dear that is an atrocious time! He must have made a mistake somewhere... Infact yes we have a replay coming through now, seems he decided the grass was a better route at turn 7. Bottom and 14th is his unsurprising position.
Warrington looks to match his team-mate and get himself right at the front of the grid. Unfortunately he can't manage it, and currently sits nearly a second down in 12th.
Ah back to that familiar TNR front shot, those nose cone sponsors best be happy... Anyway, Horvath finds himself on the outskirts of the points down in 10th.
Thomas looks to carry on improving after a slow start to the season, and so far its looking good for him. He manages to place his SCR car in 6th.
Muller is now at his second race as a Scala driver and is looking to claim his first points the weekend. Thats certaintly one way to go about it, im sure his boss will be chuffed with his 5th.
Meanwhile across the garage, Somogyi unfortunately is struggling to build on his point as he can only attempt to match his team-mate with a slow 16th place.
As in Free Practise the Scala and Scuderia teams are going about this in pairs. The first Minardi car goes passed... Johnson into 10th, decent, decent...
Minardi number 2 coming through seconds later... Kittleson only into 14th place, he will want to build on that in later runs.
Last but hopefully not least this time, its Snake man Nick Worseling. And well he parks himself slap bang in the middle of the grid, into 11th place.
Now everyone has driven passed the chequered line fast at least once, we can see where everyone stands:
Hunsley back out at the head of the field once again looking to improve. Well he does, but its not really by much, only from 21st to 19th.
We get a very interesting nose cam shot of the snake car of Karjalainen crossing the line. Pity the time isnt as good as the camera shot, he improves from 21st to... well 21st.
Pederson looking to continue his solid season so far, and he posts the 8th fastest time of the session so far. He has a shot of big points from there.
Not for long though, as Vilela pops up and slots his ART car into 7th place with a good lap.
Elleker looking to work on his first run time, and he does so, guiding his car into the final points position of 12th.
Warrington getting closer to that pole time , he's now just over half a second away and sits in 9th place.
Thats a bit more of a normal time from Maverick, who seems to have discovered tarmac is the way to go. Still i imagine he will hope for better than 17th...
Worseling also goes about improving his time, and he seems to want to sit bang in the middle of the grid, as he steals back 11th place.
Kittleson however makes a huge leap forward and manages to slot himself into 6th place, good effort!
Cartwright crossing the line was missed due to the confusion with the cameras... people have been sacked, replays sorted, and i can promise you he did improve to 7th,
Karjalainen still seems to be chipping away at the very small places of the grid, as now he has improved himself up to only 20th place.
This looks slightly familiar too... Yup this seems to be the 2nd time Sheppard has gone and clinched 8th place. These guys seem to like certain places today...
Elleker doesn't seem satisfied with improving his time once, and he's done a better job this time, going up to 10th place.
Warrington is sloooooowly moving his way up the grid. He now works up AMR car up to 8th place, maybe by the end he will have pole?
Maybe Aleksander did have a nibble of that pasta, as he can't seem to find that 1st place that he got last week. Only up to 12th now.
That's much more like it from Maverick. He finally gets around to showing the form that he's capable of and dives into the points for 7th.
Somogyi still seems to be flirting with the points at the moment. He gets himself up to 15th, half a second down, but i can see him wanting more...
Oooh mighty effort from Greenhalgh! I mean in the car of course, as he is the only man to go close to his time that he set in run 1.
TNR boss might be thinking "same old, same old" after that lap from Horvath. The hungarian can only get himself up to 19th place.
Pederson also manages to improve his time, but its not the same pace he has displayed in the first 6 races of the season. Only 16th place.
It seems Maverick hasnt finished there! He's come quite far in this session, from so far back up to 4th place, he really has worked hard.
Thats marginally better from Karjalainen, but he's still not awefully close to a points position with that lap, as he now sits in 16th.
Whilst Horvath doesn't seem to be able to get close to the points with his car, Sheppard is persistently pushing at the 7th/8th position, as he puts his car there once again.
Johnson in his Scuderia Minardi car manages to get himself up to 15th place, but from the looks of it he may well have had to deal with a Christel all lap.
Warrington once again slowly moving up the grid, as once again he puts his car into 8th place. He's still 3 tenths behind his team-mate though.
Vilela meanwhile decides that he wants to put his ART car right behind the AMR car of Warrington, as he parks himself in 9th place.
We have hit the 20 minute mark, so now we can show you what place everyone sits in:
Annnnnd it seems i missed a memo at this point, saying that qualifying would contain a 19 minute test session! Everyone after this point decided to lap a second slower than their actual times doing some sort of heavy fuel run thing. Infact absolutely nothing happened in the entire 19 minutes with everyone being to slow to even go wide! Sorry there are no screenshots, but there really was nothing to show.
Anyway enough of a rant at you all
, congratulations to
Ed Greenhalgh of Aston Martin Racing on pole! As in Free Practise, the time was set in the first run, and noone was really able to get close for the entire session, formidable lap!
Official ResultsSee you all tomorrow for the race!
Bye!