Paul Jouffreau put a halt on Vittorio Ghirelli’s Qualifying dominance with a blistering lap time in the first Qualifying session of 2025.
For the first time since 2023, someone not named Vittorio Ghirelli takes the Qualifying Pole Position Award in EuroNASCAR PRO.
RDV Competition’s Paul Jouffreau denied Ghirelli from the top spot with a blistering second flying lap during the Qualifying sessions at Circuit Ricardo Tormo.
It ensured Jouffreau of his first Qualifying pole position since the 2023 EuroNASCAR Finals. Jouffreau also became the first driver to claim pole position from EuroNASCAR’s new Qualifying format in 2025.
The single car oriented format proved to be a success for both competitors and fans. Teams are happy that it allowed for equal broadcast time for everyone, while the fans enjoyed a mixed grid position that added to the excitement.
EuroNASCAR OPEN also featured a young talent leading the field in pole position. Thomas Krasonis snatched first away from Claudio Remigio Cappelli to grab the Greek’s maiden Qualifying pole position.
EuroNASCAR PRO Qualifying Recap
With the new single car format, drivers are sent out in reverse order of their Practice times. Naturally, the drivers who topped Friday’s Practice will have an advantage as they’ll receive a cleaner track to set their lap times in.
Therefore, it’s not a surprise that four of the top-5 qualifiers came from the final batch of drivers. Jouffreau, Ghirelli, Liam Hezemans and Yvan Muller all took advantage of the cleaner asphalt into good use.
A statement was made by Ghirelli after he set a lap time of 1:40.901 on his final flying lap. It looked like the inevitable had happened once more, but Jouffreau denied the Italian from that dream.
The signs are made after Jouffreau set the fastest first flyer out of anybody. Sure enough, the Frenchman went one step better and shaved his time to 1:40.608 to secure his first Pole Position Award for 2025.
“It was just easy,” said Jouffreau after the session. “The car went wherever I wanted. The tires are fantastic and I did a good job at the outlap to make the best out of it.”
“I’m really happy, we worked so hard this winter to get the Pole Position. This was the part where I was losing last year with Ghirelli getting all the poles, so it’s a good way to start the championship!”
Thomas Krasonis in third is the fastest out of anyone not in the final batch of cars. However, his time of 1:41.413 is almost a full second behind Jouffreau. It puts a stark reminder on how fast Ghirelli and Jouffreau are to the rest of the field.
Liam Hezemans could only muster up fourth place ahead of Yvan Muller. The touring car legend will be accompanied by Garrett Lowe in the third row of the grid.
Seventh went to Claudio Remigio Cappelli, again the fastest in the Challenger Trophy. Sebastiaan Bleekemolen was eighth ahead of Gianmarco Ercoli, who qualified in an unusually low ninth. Jack Davidson completed the top-10 in his first race as a full-time PRO competitor.
Plenty of big names fell into a wayside as a penalty for their poor Practice performance or as a result of violating track limits.
Giorgio Maggi was only 17th after failing to find more pace despite being in batch 4. Martin Doubek and Marc Goossens were relegated to 18th and 22nd respectively after their best lap times were deleted for exceeding track limits.
EuroNASCAR PRO Qualifying Results
EuroNASCAR OPEN Qualifying Recap
Compared to EuroNASCAR PRO, EuroNASCAR PRO maintains the traditional group format. However, with only 15 minutes in play, the action was more frantic than previous year’s 20 minute session.
The lead rapidly changed from one lap to the next. Melvin de Groot, Gil Linster and Claudio Remigio Cappelli all took their turns at the lead before Thomas Krasonis put in a lap time of 1:41.595 to give him an advantage that would not be surpassed.
Krasonis previously claimed one pole position in Race 2 of the 2024 American SpeedFest XI. However, the pole at Valencia is the Greek’s first from the Qualifying sessions.
“Well, I don’t have to say anything because all that matters is the race,” said Krasonis. “But, it’s a good feeling knowing that I’m in first position after the Qualifying procedure.”
“We worked a lot for this. The only thing left now is to make a good start and bring it home. We need to stay calm and not make mistakes like last year.”
Cappelli’s previous benchmark of 1:41.683 was enough for the Italian to take second. The Academy Motorsport driver therefore continued his streak of leading the Legend Trophy in Valencia.
Patrick Schober and Martin Doubek met each other once again. This time, the 2024 title rivals will both start from the second row of the grid.
A highly impressive outing was delivered by top Master Trophy driver Sandro Tavartkiladze. The Georgian was looking forward to showing what Georgians are capable of in EuroNASCAR and judging by the results, there is genuine potential that’s been unleashed from the small Eastern European country.
Tavartkiladze showed promise by putting his car eleventh fastest in Free Practice on Friday. However, no one expected him to actually go as high as fourth place in Qualifying.
Tavartkiladze eventually qualified in fifth place, just 0.277 seconds away from Krasonis. With the rate of his improvement, the 11-time Georgian national racing champion has a real chance of securing a podium finish at some point in the 2025 season.
Sixth went to Thomas Dombrowski, ahead of Gil Linster and Thomas Toffel who had a disappointing Qualifying. Team Bleekemolen’s duo of Bruno Mulders and Melvin de Groot completed the top-10.
Drifter Valentino Gambarotto starts his circuit racing campaign in 16th position. He’s only three positions ahead of Vanessa Neumann, who became the top driver in the Lady Trophy.
The driver known as “Happinessa” had a slow start to her Qualifying session. However, the more laps she logged, the more confidence she got.
The confidence boost came in time for Vanessa. The closing stages of Qualifying saw the driver of the No. 77 OnlyFans Camaro set a lap time of 1:47.561, just enough to beat Arianna Casoli by 0.064 seconds.
EuroNASCAR OPEN Qualifying Results
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