Photo: ETCR

Jean-Karl Vernay on ETCR Pool Fast pole despite losing Q2 lap at Zolder

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Hyundai Motorsport’s Jean-Karl Vernay claimed Pool Fast pole for the fourth round of the ETCR season at Zolder.

Vernay had the advantage in the first segment of qualifying, held early on Saturday morning, and went fastest by 0.594 seconds in his Hyundai Veloster N ETCR. His closest rival was Cupra EKS’s Adrien Tambay, who in the slightly warmer conditions of qualifying’s second session later in the morning had the stronger car.

The order of Q1 reversed set the running order for Q2, with Romeo Ferraris’s Giovanni Venturini out first as severe rear locking led to an off on his 500kW lap in the earlier segment and meant he did not record a representative laptime.

Hyundai’s Norbert Michelisz was second on track, and went over a second slower than Venturini but would have his laptime deleted anyway due to cutting a chicane.

Venturini’s team-mate Bruno Spengler was next up, and although he was some way off Vernay’s pace in Q1 he had more confidence on cold tyres at the start of his flying lap in Q2 and set the fastest first sector of anyone before managing the rest of the lap to go 0.699s quicker than Venturini.

An improved feeling in the car in the slightly warmer temperatures but Cupra e-Racer-driving duo duo Tom Blomqvist and Adrien Tambay in good stead as they took to the track, and Blomqvist set the benchmark lap of the session with a 1m36.754s and was fastest in the more technical final sector of the lap although said “I’m pretty happy with my lap, but the last sector wasn’t great”.

Tambay was just 0.233s slower, while Vernay dropped time in sector one, set the pace in sector two and then lost over 1.3s in the final few corners to end up slowest before he too had his lap deleted after qualifying ended.

However as Blomqvist didn’t beat his Q1 benchmark, it means Vernay still gets to start from pole in their quarter-final, where Tambay will be the third car. Spengler starts from pole in Q2, ahead of Michelisz and Venturini.

Next up is the Pool Furious qualifying, starting at 11:25 CEST.