Poulsen’s weekend goes from bad to worse

Caught out in qualifying, spinning whilst pushing too hard, Kristian Poulsen lost the lead in the independents’ trophy to a double race winning Norbert Michelisz, and was the hit with a drive-through penalty for race one.

The Danish driver had a tough race day ahead of him after qualifying in 15th position for both races, missing the top ten shootout after crashing on his final run.

“It was my mistake, on the second set of tyres I was seventh and I thought that was enough…and then within four or five minutes and then I had to go out again, (as) I was down to 12th. I was pushing on a really good lap, a half-second ahead and then in the last corner I hit the kerb too hard and the car went on the side and went directly into the barriers. It was my mistake, I was pushing too hard.”

Poulsen made up ground in race one, finishing 11th and the fourth classified independent driver, however the stewards decided the Liqui-Moly Team Engstler driver had gained an advantage after cutting the chicane and imposed a retrospective drive-through penalty time of 30 seconds which dropped him to 14th and seventh in the independents’ standings, picking up just two points.

In race two, contact with Pepe Oriola saw the Dane lose the best part of a lap with an unscheduled visit to the pits, and finished outside of the points. Poulsen still holds on the second in the independents’ standings, but is now four points behind Norbert Michelisz, and five points ahead of Proteam Racing driver Javier Villa.