At Sochi Autodrom Jordi Gené claimed his first pole position in the TCR International Series. However, the Spaniard needed to post a second fastest lap of 2:20.976, because his previous lap time of 2:20.890 had been disallowed by the Stewards for trespassing the track limits.
From the beginning of the session Gené showed he had a leading pace and posted a provisional fastest lap of 2:22.142; Pepe Oriola looked on the way to improve that mark being fastest in the first two sectors, however he eventually spoiled his lap outbraking himself.
Mikhail Grachev had a brief spell on top of the time sheet with a lap of 2:21.928 that Gené immediately beat, improving to 2:21.649. And yet Grachev was able to respond and stopped the clock to 2:21.403.
Halfway through the session Tomas Engström climbed on top with a lap of 2:21.272. A few seconds later, Andrea Belicchi saw his chances spoiled by a slower car.
In the latest moments of the session Gené stroke back and posted the two fastest laps, the best of which was disallowed.
Belicchi (2:21.025) and Oriola (2:21.256) managed to climb to second and third respectively, demoting Engström and Grachev to fourth and fifth.
Current championship leader Gianni Morbidelli qualified in eighth, but only six tenths off the pole; his team-mate Kevin Gleason posted the tenth fastest lap that gave him pole position on the reversed grid for Race 2.
Russian guest stars Aleksey Dudukalo and Ildar Rakhmatullin ranked 11 th and 12 th after they both had won their own races in the Russian Circuit Racing Series.
TCR competitors will be back in action tomorrow in a ten-minute shake down at 9.00; the two races will start at 12.35 and 14.05 local time. They will be streamed back-to-back on the website from 13.20 local time (12.20 in Central Europe).
What the drivers had to say
Jordi Gené, pole position: “The car performed perfectly from the very first moment on this track and it’s nice to conquer my first pole. Races will be another story, as this is a fast track where it is easy to overtake. My best lap was cancelled, but my second best was enough to grant pole. Really, it is very difficult to know when you are off the track limits, you really have to target sharply the correct line to stay legal.”
Andrea Belicchi, second fastest: “Since the engine change prior to the Salzburgring round, my car is working perfectly and I can be again at the top. I could have done pole today but got two laps ruined, one by a small mistake the other by a slower car. We still have some work to do to correct some over-steering that is quite disturbing. Just like Jordi, I found it difficult to cope with track limits, it’s sometimes a matter of a few centimetres…”
Pepe Oriola, third fastest: “I’m even quite surprised to be third-fastest, as I thought I was further down. I must have had an issue with brakes, maybe they were too worn out or there was a faulty pad, because I couldn’t avoid locking the wheels at every strong braking. Never had such a lock-up before, with the car filled with smoke. To be able to respect track limits seems the biggest issue on this circuit, it’s easy to be off as visibility in some corners is limited and there are few reference points in sector 2.”
Qualifying session in Sochi shortened to 20 minutes
Following a request from all the competitors, the Panel of the Stewards agreed to shorten today’s Qualifying session at Sochi Autodrom to twenty minutes.
For this event only, the usual format of twenty-minute Q1 plus ten-minute Q2 was dropped and drivers competed all together in a one-part 20-minute session instead.
The Grid for Race 1 is based on the Qualifying results, while the ten fastest qualifiers will be reversed on the Grid for Race 2.