Hendriks Motorsport’s rookie driver Tobias Dauenhauer secured the pole position for EuroNASCAR 2’s first race of the season with a time of 1:40.574, leading fellow rookie Andreas Jochimsen and Simon Pilate as the rookie trio impresses on their debut NASCAR Whelen Euro Series outing at Vallelunga.
Having already dominated the Open Test and the official Practice session, Tobias Dauenhauer continues to make a huge impression in his debut NASCAR Whelen Euro Series outing as the driver of Hendriks Motorsport’s No. 50 RZOIL Ford Mustang secured pole position for EuroNASCAR 2’s first race of the weekend with a time of 1:40.574.
Dauenhauer secured his pole winning time early on in a Qualifying session that didn’t include the Superpole as part of the compact weekend format that Euro Series is using this weekend.
Fellow rookies Andreas Jochimsen and Simon Pilate also impresses as they secured a 2nd and 3rd place finish in Qualifying. Pilate became the first driver in Qualifying to set a sub 1:42 lap time before Jochimsen became the first to do a sub 1:41 lap at Vallelunga. They finished ahead of EN2 veterans Vittorio Ghirelli and Alessandro Brigatti, who completes the Top 5 in Qualifying.
Unfortunately for Jochimsen, a technical infringement during Qualifying meant that he received a 3-place grid penalty for Race 1. This penalty meant that Pilate will be joining Dauenhauer at the front row while Ghirelli and Brigatti will be starting on the second row for the first ever race of the year.
Alex Ciompi also secured an impressive 6th place finish in his debut outing in the EuroNASCAR 2 class ahead of Andre Castro. Cypriot Vladimiros Tziortzis also impresses as he qualified 8th ahead of two series veterans Guillaume Dumarey and Nicholas Risitano.
Dylan Derdaele qualified 11th ahead of Julia Landauer, the driver of the No. 11 car. Landauer became the first driver to come out to the track during Qualifying and briefly set the pace in the early stages of Qualifying. She qualified ahead of Not Only Motorsport’s Davide Dallara, while the Marko Stipp Motorsport duo of Kris Richard and Gašper Dernovšek completes the Top 15.
Francesco Garisto, Giovanni Trione, Arianna Casoli, and Eric Quintal completes the running order as only 19 cars of the 24 listed in the Entry List set a lap time in Qualifying.
QUALIFYING RESULTS
| RANK | DRIVER | QUALIFYING |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Tobias Dauenhauer (50) | 1:40.574 |
| 2. | Andreas Jochimsen (66) | 1:40.902 1 |
| 3. | Simon Pilate (6) | 1:41.221 |
| 4. | Vittorio Ghirelli (18) | 1:41.238 |
| 5. | Alessandro Brigatti (8) | 1:41.469 |
| 6. | Alex Ciompi (17) | 1:41.672 |
| 7. | Andre Castro (22) | 1:41.704 |
| 8. | Vladimiros Tziortzis (1) | 1:41.721 |
| 9. | Guillaume Dumarey (24) | 1:41.790 |
| 10. | Nicholas Risitano (12) | 1:41.823 |
| 11. | Dylan Derdaele (98) | 1:41.948 |
| 12. | Julia Landauer (11) | 1:41.971 |
| 13. | Davide Dallara (89) | 1:42.536 |
| 14. | Kris Richard (48) | 1:42.766 |
| 15. | Gašper Dernovšek (46) | 1:43.144 |
| 16. | Francesco Garisto (42) | 1:43.917 |
| 17. | Giovanni Trione (31) | 1:44.215 |
| 18. | Arianna Casoli (54) | 1:45.999 |
| 19. | Eric Quintal (33) | 1:47.144 |
| 20. | Max Lanza (88) | No Time |
| 21. | Marcel Lenerz (99) | No Time |
| 22. | Roberto Benedetti (41) | No Time |
| 23. | Matthias Hauer (64) | No Time |
| 24. | Martin Doubek (7) | Withdraw |
1 Jochimsen will be starting Race 1 in 5th after he received a 3-place grid penalty for technical infringements during Qualifying.
Four cars – Max Lanza, Marcel Lenerz, Roberto Benedetti, and Matthias Hauer – did not set a lap time during Qualifying. Lanza and Lenerz experienced issues with their car that forced them to sit out from Qualifying, while it is unknown what causes Benedetti and Hauer to not set a lap time during Qualifying.
As for Martin Doubek, it was revealed yesterday that he was forced to withdraw his entry from Vallelunga after he was tested positive for COVID-19 before he traveled to Italy. World of EuroNASCAR, along with the entire NASCAR Whelen Euro Series family, wishes Doubek the best in his recovery from COVID-19.
Disclaimer: Unless noted, all photos used in this article are courtesy of NASCAR Whelen Euro Series / Stephane Azemard / Bart Dehaese.