Giorgio Maggi continues to prove himself as the Elite 2 Qualifying master as the Swiss driver claims his fourth successive Superpole victory in yesterday’s Qualifying and Superpole session at Circuit Zolder.
Maggi was able to take advantage of the improving track conditions to set a blistering lap time of 1:40.710 in Superpole. It was the only sub-1:41 lap time in Superpole, and that proved to be enough to secure his fourth successive Superpole victory and his sixth consecutive Pole Position in the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series.
“It was a really tricky one because there was a river in Turn 3,” said Maggi to Mark Werrell in the post-race interview. “It was really hard to judge how much speed you can go through because once you hit it, you’re about 5-6 meters on the outside. It got really close sometimes, but the car felt good. It was tricky on the brakes, and I’m happy about it.”
Vittorio Ghirelli rebounds from a disastrous weekend at Hockenheim to claim 2nd place on the grid, albeit he’s 0.662 seconds slower than Maggi in Superpole. Hugo de Sadeleer continues his impressive Euro Series debut runs as he will start in 3rd place for Saturday’s race ahead of Martin Doubek, while Jesse Vartiainen also continued his impressive run as he rounds out the Top 5 in his Alex Caffi Motorsport Camaro.
Lasse Sørensen will have a lot of work to do as he starts in 6th place for Saturday’s race. Advait Deodhar sandwiches the Dexwet-DF1 Racing drivers as he finished Superpole ahead of Justin Kunz, while Nicholas Risitano and Myatt Snider completes the Top 10, with Alessandro Brigatti and Pol van Pollaert rounding out the Superpole drivers in 11th and 12th place respectively.
Ben Creanor is in 13th ahead of Freddie Hemborg, who initially made it to Superpole but later had his fastest time removed for track limit infringements. Michael Bleekemolen leads the Legend Trophy drivers in 15th place ahead of fellow Legend Trophy competitor Ian Eric Wadén. Naveh Talor is in 17th place while Pierluigi Veronesi can only qualified in 18th after he had to stop his car in Qualifying due to a suspected mechanical issue.
Niels Albert, Arianna Casoli, Matthias Hauer, and Sven van Laere would complete the grid as these four drivers were considerably off the pace during Qualifying – they were 12, 13, 15, and 19 seconds behind the fastest Qualifying lap time of 1:42.306 set by Vittorio Ghirelli respectively.
QUALIFYING RESULTS
| RANK | DRIVER | QUALIFYING | SUPERPOLE |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Giorgio Maggi (50) | 1:42.910 | 1:40.710 |
| 2. | Vittorio Ghirelli (24) | 1:42.306 | 1:41.372 |
| 3. | Hugo de Sadeleer (88) | 1:42.355 | 1:41.480 |
| 4. | Martin Doubek (7) | 1:42.761 | 1:42.446 |
| 5. | Jesse Vartiainen (2) | 1:43.038 | 1:42.508 |
| 6. | Lasse Sørensen (66) | 1:43.874 | 1:42.561 |
| 7. | Advait Deodhar (31) | 1:43.677 | 1:42.571 |
| 8. | Justin Kunz (99) | 1:43.196 | 1:42.607 |
| 9. | Nicholas Risitano (8) | 1:43.476 | 1:42.864 |
| 10. | Myatt Snider (48) | 1:43.291 | 1:42.955 |
| 11. | Alessandro Brigatti (9) | 1:42.814 | 1:43.038 |
| 12. | Pol van Pollaert (98) | 1:44.033 | 1:45.086 |
| 13. | Ben Creanor (33) | 1:44.035 | – |
| 14. | Freddie Hemborg (77) | 1:45.267 | – |
| 15. | Michael Bleekemolen (70) | 1:45.292 | – |
| 16. | Ian Eric Wadén (23) | 1:45.726 | – |
| 17. | Naveh Talor (12) | 1:46.273 | – |
| 18. | Pierluigi Veronesi (27) | 1:48.254 | – |
| 19. | Niels Albert (11) | 1:54.996 | – |
| 20. | Arianna Casoli (54) | 1:55.392 | – |
| 21. | Matthias Hauer (64) | 1:57.521 | – |
| 22. | Sven van Laere (78) | 2:01.486 | – |
Disclaimer: Unless noted, all photos used in this article are courtesy of NASCAR Whelen Euro Series / Stephane Azemard.