Photo: PURE ETCR

Newcomer Philipp Eng takes sensational Super Final B pole

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Romeo Ferraris driver Philipp Eng continued his impressive PURE ETCR debut by taking pole position for Super Final B in Copenhagen.

Eng posted a time of 1:11.203 to edge out Hyundai Motorsport’s Tom Chilton by just over a tenth of a second to seal the top spot, with his one-lap time only a quarter of a second slower than Mattias Ekström’s Super Final A pole effort.

The Austrian, competing in his first PURE ETCR round, has been the revelation of the weekend having taken a victory in Saturday’s preliminary Battles.

Now, he will start at the front of the grid for the Super Final B, which is scheduled to take place later on today at 15:30 CET.

“It was a great qualifying, the team guided me very well,” Eng said post-qualifying.

“This is my first Super Pole and it was a lap fully on the edge, I had to take a lot of risks and I was close to the wall a few times, I had a lot of adrenaline. I’m very happy with P1 in my group.”

Eng was the third of six cars to set a lap-time and, despite what appeared to be a momentary blend out of the throttle at Turn 1, was just a tenth slower than the early pacesetter, Hyundai Motorsport’s Augusto Farfus, in the first sector.

A purple second sector brought Eng firmly into contention and a solid final sector moved Eng to the top of the pile to the tune of eight tenths of a second over Farfus.

Farfus had been the first driver to set a lap-time but bemoaned “[a] couple of big mistakes on my lap which cost me a better starting position.”  The Brazilian added: “I think we had the car to fight for the top position but that was down to me.”

Either side of Eng’s pole time was the Cupra X Zengo Motorsport car of Mikel Azcona and the second of the Romeo Ferraris Alfas of Rodrigo Baptista.

Neither managed to get close to Eng’s time and will line up fifth and sixth respectively for the Super Final.

The final two cars to set a time produced the closest challenges to Eng, with Zengo Motorsport’s Jordi Gené putting in a superb final sector to just miss out on the top spot by two-tenths of a second.

Hyundai’s Tom Chilton was equally impressive in his Velostar N ECTR as the Brit went on the attack. Clattering the kerbs at the final chicane, Chilton, who had set the fastest middle sector of the session, ended up just 0.114s shy of the pole time and will start second.