POLE STREAK CONTINUES FOR KISS WITH DOUBLE AT MOST
Norbert Kiss will, once again, lead the grid over the line in Race Three as he takes another pole position in 2024.
Jochen Hahn was Kiss’ closest rival this morning, but unlike yesterday, the pole never looked in threat for the Hungarian. His almost half a second advantage after first laps in Q3 gave him provisional pole, something no one could beat as they tried to change down his 2:01.263. The top three all set 2m01s lap times, but they were no match for the speeding Balu in the hands of Kiss.
Hahn just held off yesterday’s Race Two winner Antonio Albacete to secure another front row start, beating the Spainard by 0.102s. All eyes will again be on the Team Hahn Racing truck to see if he can beat Kiss on the drag down to Turn 1 when we get racing in a few hours’ time.
Sascha Lenz qualified fourth ahead of André Kursim to complete the top five, making it an all-Titan front of the grid. With issues for Steffi Halm, it was Chrome championship leader José Eduardo Rodrigues, who claimed the final spot in Q3, taking sixth on the overall grid and securing another Chrome class pole.
After being handed a ten second penalty for the incident with John Newell in Race Two, Rodrigues will be happy to be starting ahead of Chrome rival Mark Taylor who has been on fantastic form this weekend. Taylor lines up just behind Rodrigues in P7 overall, P2 in class, and will be hoping to pass the Portuguese driver quickly to keep chipping into his Chrome class lead. With two class wins and pole coming from Saturday’s racing for Taylor, he’ll be looking to keep that momentum rolling into Sunday’s races.
Prior to qualifying even starting, Steffi Halm had a steering issue during the warm up session where a bizarre incident occurred and part of the steering came off. The truck was fine to qualify, but it’s still a bit of a mystery to the team how the central part of the steering wheel that attaches the steering wheel to the steering column came loose. Be it a small loss of confidence in her racing machine due to the incident or a drop in pace having not taken part in the warm up, Halm looked on the back foot throughout her time in qualification today. This was reflected in her inability to make it through to Q3, starting down in eighth amongst the Chrome drivers.
Clemens Hecker will start P9, P3 in Chrome, with Luis Recuenco alongside him to complete the top ten. Off the back of repairs to his truck after the Race Two incident, John Newell could do no better than 11th, the final classified time in Q2.
Steffen Faas will start 12th having set a time in Q1, but was unable to take any further part after his first lap as a steering failure saw him stranded at the side of the circuit. The issue brought out a ten-minute red flag, during which time the qualifying clock was paused so no track time was lost.
Bradley Smith, albeit able to return to the track after the red flag to set more lap times, was unable to improve enough to move any higher than 13th, making him the sole elimination from Q1.
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