Paul Jouffreau continued his good run of form after the Frenchman grabbed his second Qualifying pole position of 2025 at Vallelunga.
Paul Jouffreau firmly establishes himself as the master of EuroNASCAR PRO’s new single-car oriented Qualifying format. The French driver secured consecutive pole positions after he once again clinched the Pole Award for the 2025 American Festival of Rome.
Jouffreau’s pole position is facilitated by his ability to maximize the tire warm-up in his No. 3 Ford Mustang. The 21-year old driver stormed to provisional pole in his first flying lap and went even faster the second time around, setting the only sub-1:41 lap of the session.
Jouffreau is accompanied on the front row by Thomas Krasonis. The Greek also grabbed the 2025 NASCAR GP Italy pole position in EuroNASCAR OPEN. Krasonis left it until late in the session, beating Claudio Remigio Cappelli with only 2 minutes left on the clock.
EuroNASCAR PRO Qualifying Recap
Jouffreau started off his Qualifying session from the penultimate batch of cars. It put the Frenchman in an awkward spot: He was not the “track sweeper”, but he didn’t receive the maximum amount of grip that the Vallelunga circuit offers.
None of that would ultimately hinder Jouffreau’s efforts. The 2024 runner-up immediately toppled the previous best time set by Cappelli by more than half a second on his first flying lap.
This particular time of his – a 1:41.572 – was good enough for fourth on the grid in the end, but Jouffreau wasn’t satisfied. He went one step better in his second flier and set a lap time of 1:40.945 to fully lock his second Strom Watches Pole Award of 2025.
“I don’t know if the camera was on me on the out lap, but if you could watch it, the car was moving everywhere on the first lap!” said the Frenchman. “I was eating those tires, I really was.”
“If we continue like this, I think we showed to everyone that we’re good in qualifying. I will try to win all the Strom Watches Pole Awards available thanks to the amazing work RDV Competition does.”
As mentioned above, Krasonis qualified second on his No. 13 Costamare Inc. Camaro. The Greek came up short by 0.228 seconds, but he qualified ahead of his teammate Vittorio Ghirelli.
Ghirelli was seen to be a little agitated after his Qualifying, seemingly in disbelief that both Jouffreau and Krasonis beat him once again.
Gianmarco Ercoli and Liam Hezemans completed the top-5, the former unable to follow upon his Friday Practice heroics. Martin Doubek, Sebastiaan Bleekemolen, Cappelli, Fabrizio Armetta and Vladimiros Tziortzis round out the top-10 positions.
Sim racer Garrett Lowe showed his talents by putting his car in eleventh from the first batch of cars. Lowe had to go out when the track was at its dirtiest thanks to the issues he had in Friday’s Practice.
EuroNASCAR PRO Qualifying Results
EuroNASCAR OPEN Qualifying Recap
The EuroNASCAR OPEN field had an eventful Qualifying session under the bright sunny skies of Vallelunga. Drama started before the session began after the paddock received news that Gil Linster will not take part from the shootout due to an illness.
Linster faced a very tough uphill road to climb on should he be declared fit for Saturday’s race. The championship leader had to start from 21st and last place in his No. 30 Rette Jones Racing Ford Mustang.
Later in the session, the drivers were faced with an unexpected Full Course Yellow call-up. Giovanni Faraonio stalled his No. 22 Dinoil Camaro right on the pit exit, forcing race control to bring out the FCY to facilitate the extraction of his machine.
This FCY situation meant that fast times only started to be set towards the end. After several lead changes, Krasonis extracted enough performance and set a lap time of 1:41.339.
Cappelli and Thomas Toffel tried their best to match Krasonis’ time, but traffic caused them some headaches. This was enough to set up the Greek for a nice run to the first corner in the upcoming Saturday race.
“It was good,” said Krasonis after the session. “We prepared a lot for every round and we were ready for this one. We showed it on the track and all in all, I think we’re in a good spot.”
“All that’s left is to make a good start. I’m learning how to start from the first spot, so I just need to be patient and not make any mistakes.”
Cappelli had to settle for second, although he did run into trouble after the session was completed. The Italian missed the pit entry on his cooldown lap and had to inadvertently tour the Vallelunga circuit for one more time.
Toffel is pleased with his third place result, as it allowed him to start ahead of reigning champion Martin Doubek. Patrick Schober was fifth ahead of Master Trophy leaders Thomas Dombrowski and Bruno Mulders.
Roberto Benedetti, Melvin de Groot and Sandro Tavartkiladze completed the top-10. Vanessa Neumann’s 20th place result is enough to give her the advantage in Lady Trophy, beating Arianna Casoli by just 0.201 seconds.
EuroNASCAR OPEN Qualifying Results
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