Petr Fulín takes pole at the Nordschleife by just 12 thousandths of a second

Petr Fulín has claimed pole position for the European Touring Car Cup’s first race at the Nürburgring Nordschleife by just 0.012 seconds ahead of Rikli Motorsport’s Kris Richard at the legendary track.

In the dry conditions, Fulín held the top spot through the qualifying session, which was officially 60 minutes long, but due to a gentlemen’s agreement with the WTCC, the ETCC cars only took part in the first 30 minutes.

Although Fulín led the way throughout, the Czech driver was threatened in the final moments of the ETCC’s stint by a run from young Swiss Kris Richard, who managed to set a time of 9:20.057, just shy of Fulín’s time to secure second on the grid for tomorrow morning’s first race.

Norbert Nagy qualified third in the Zengo Motorsport SEAT León Cup Racer, with Igor Stefanovski fourth for Lema Racing, with Teddy Clairet fifth in the new Sébastien Loeb Racing-run Peugeot 308 Racing Cup.

The Super 1600 class was topped by Nicklas Mackschin’s Ford Fiesta, who claimed pole by just under a second ahead of the Peugeot 207 of David Griessner, while the rest of the pack were some way behind.

The second Honda Civic of Peter Rikli failed to set a time, while there were problems for both of the female racers in the ETCC in the session, with Kseniya Niks crashing out on her first run in the Ravenol Team Ford Fiesta in the final complex, with her car severely damaged in the impact.

Just before the 30 minute mark, arkonic’s Ulrike Krafft also had a heavy crash at the Carousel and required medical attention, which caused a red flag stoppage which held up the final part of the World Touring Car Championship’s part of qualifying.

Race 1 takes place with the WTCC at 11:20 CET on Saturday, with Race 2 following with the result of Race 1 reversed.