Loris Hezemans continues to lead the timesheets in the American Fan Fest Semi Finals at Hockenheim during yesterday’s Elite 1 Qualifying sessions after he set the fastest lap time in the Superpole session to score his first pole position of the season to make it six different Superpole winners in six races in the Elite 1 class.
Hezemans’ time of 1:32.160 in Superpole was enough to give him the best starting position for the Saturday race. Championship leader Stienes Longin was second, just 0.106 second slower than Hezemans as his teammate Nicolò Rocca will lead the second row of the grid with a lap time of 1:32.416.
“It’s great to grab back-to-back pole positions here at Hockenheim”, said Hezemans to euronascar.com post-qualifying. “For me it’s finally a pole, as I missed this opportunity about three times this year. I’m really happy with the result. This shows how good the car was prepared by Hendriks Motorsport ahead of this weekend. Hopefully we can translate the qualifying pace into a good result in the race.”
Thomas Ferrando continues his string of good performances following his mid-season team change to CAAL Racing as he finished fourth as the best performing CAAL driver in Saturday’s qualifying. Alexander Graff completes the Top 5 and will lead the third row of the grid ahead of Lucas Lasserre, whose No. 33 Mishumotors Camaro will feature sponsorship from Geigercars instead of Tigha.
Frédéric Gabillon was able to improve his pace on Saturday to claim 7th place ahead of Gianmarco Ercoli, while Romain Iannetta and Salvador Tineo Arroyo completes the Top 10. Jacques Villeneuve was 11th ahead of Alon Day, who did not set a lap time in Superpole after he was forced to stop his car on the front straight due to a broken fuel pump.
Drama also struck Ander Vilariño, as his actual best lap time in Qualifying was mistakenly not recorded due to a scoring error. This scoring error would cost Vilariño a chance to compete in Superpole and as a compensation for this error, Vilariño was bumped up from his initial starting place of 17th in the grid to 13th place for Saturday’s race.
Daniel Keilwitz was the fastest of the debuting drivers in 14th place, ahead of Sebastiaan Bleekemolen who also competes in the Renault Clio Cup Central Europe this week. Ulysse Delsaux once again missed the Superpole as he qualifies in 16th ahead of Lorenzo Marcucci, Martin Doubek, Francesco Sini, and Henri Tuomaala, who qualified in 20th place as the fastest Challenger Trophy driver for the Saturday race.
Dylan Derdaele was the fastest of the three new entries in 21st place, ahead of Kenko Miura, Scott Jeffs, Mauro Trione, and Guillaume Deflandre. Dario Caso, Ioannis Smyrlis, Michaela Dorcikova, and Marco Santamaria completes the 29-car field for the Saturday race.
QUALIFYING RESULTS
| RANK | DRIVER | QUALIFYING | SUPERPOLE |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Loris Hezemans (50) | 1:31.968 | 1:32.160 |
| 2. | Stienes Longin (11) | 1:32.142 | 1:32.266 |
| 3. | Nicolò Rocca (24) | 1:32.555 | 1:32.416 |
| 4. | Thomas Ferrando (27) | 1:32.780 | 1:32.719 |
| 5. | Alexander Graff (77) | 1:32.267 | 1:32.733 |
| 6. | Lucas Lasserre (33) | 1:32.828 | 1:32.830 |
| 7. | Frédéric Gabillon (3) | 1:32.740 | 1:32.870 |
| 8. | Gianmarco Ercoli (9) | 1:32.869 | 1:32.993 |
| 9. | Romain Iannetta (88) | 1:32.599 | 1:33.234 |
| 10. | Salvador Tineo Arroyo (64) | 1:32.900 | 1:33.256 |
| 11. | Jacques Villeneuve (32) | 1:32.791 | 1:33.881 |
| 12. | Alon Day (54) | 1:32.484 | No Time |
| 13. | Ander Vilariño (48) | 1:32.888 1 | – |
| 14. | Daniel Keilwitz (70) | 1:32.945 | – |
| 15. | Sebastiaan Bleekemolen (69) | 1:33.079 | – |
| 16. | Ulysse Delsaux (36) | 1:33.111 | – |
| 17. | Lorenzo Marcucci (41) | 1:33.448 | – |
| 18. | Martin Doubek (7) | 1:33.498 | – |
| 19. | Francesco Sini (12) | 1:33.519 | – |
| 20. | Henri Tuomaala (23) | 1:33.556 | – |
| 21. | Dylan Derdaele (98) | 1:33.566 | – |
| 22. | Kenko Miura (2) | 1:33.871 | – |
| 23. | Scott Jeffs (90) | 1:33.965 | – |
| 24. | Mauro Trione (31) | 1:34.313 | – |
| 25. | Guillaume Deflandre (99) | 1:34.410 | – |
| 26. | Dario Caso (8) | 1:34.453 | – |
| 27. | Ioannis Smyrlis (22) | 1:35.995 | – |
| 28. | Michaela Dorcikova (1) | 1:36.313 | – |
| 29. | Marco Santamaria (56) | 1:36.932 | – |
1 Ander Vilarino initially qualified in 17th with a lap time of 1:33.482, but a scoring error saw his actual best lap time, 1:32.888, not being listed in the Qualifying results. He was bumped to 13th place on the grid as a result of this.
The NASCAR Whelen Euro Series will hit the track for Round 10 and Round 11 of the 2019 season on 21 September and 22 September respectively. All qualifying and races for this season will be aired live on FansChoice.tv, Motorsport.tv, and the official Facebook page and YouTube channel of the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series.
Disclaimer: Unless noted, all photos used in this article are courtesy of NASCAR Whelen Euro Series / Bart Dehaese.