Photo: ETCC Media

Anton Ladygin takes shock last minute pole in Pergusa

SMP Russian Bears Racing’s Anton Ladygin took a surprise last gasp pole position at Pergusa, depriving the S2000 points leading Krenek Motorsport BMW of Petr Fulín in the last few minutes of the 30 minute session, which was briefly interrupted with a red flag stoppage.

The 23-year-old Russian set a last minute flyer of 1:52.186 in his SEAT León Supercopa, over half a second faster than Fulín’s best time to grap pole position for the fifth round of the 2013 FIA European Touring Car Cup at the Pergusa circuit in Sicily, Italy.

Ladygin was therefore also the fastest Single-Make Trophy class driver, whilst Petr Fulín, who leads the S2000 standings by four points is classed as pole position in his class and will start on the outside of the front row in tomorrow’s first race, which is the rolling start.

Aurélien Comte, in the Galaxy Racing SEAT Supercopa was third fastest, but was unable to improve his time after his car stopped on circuit which was the cause of the red flag interruption two-thirds of the way into the session. Tuenti Racing Team’s Jordi Oriola was in fourth place with a time just over a second down on Ladygin’s.

Campos Racing’s Igor Skuz was fifth fastest and the second fastest of the S2000 class drivers in his SEAT León TFSI, the only one to take part in the session with Wolfgang Treml not taking part this weekend and Dusan Borkovic having made the switch to the Chevrolet Cruze.

Borkovic could only manage ninth overall in his first qualifying session with the Chevrolet, and fourth of the S2000 class runners with the BMW of Mat’o Homola claiming eighth on the grid.

S1600 points leader Kevin Krammes grabbed the class pole with the 18th fastest time overall in his Ravenol Team GENA Ford Fiesta, just 0.071 seconds faster than Luxembourg’s Gilles Bruckner in the Team LuxMotor Ford Fiesta ST.

The first race gets underway at 11:20 CET tomorrow.