In the opening laps in the qualifying session Dane Lasse Sorensen hit the front and kept on improving his times to clinch his first pole position of the year. Behind him came championship newcomer Patricio O’Ward from Mexico and Anglo-Swiss Felix Hirsiger.
The weather was pleasant and the sun shone for the qualifying session. The 24 trainee drivers immediately rushed out onto the quick, technical Val de Vienne circuit for the 30-minute session with a single aim: namely to set the two best times in this session to clinch pole positions for races 1 and 3. The track is usually one that requires experience but this didn’t cause any problems for Dane Lasse Sorensen who, without even waiting for his Kumho tyres to reach the right temperature, set a benchmark time on his third lap and dominated the session. In the morning he had already laid down a marker in the free sessions run on a damp track. The quickest drivers in the free sessions went to the top of the time sheets as Sorensen was closely followed by Anglo-Swiss Félix Hirsiger and Swiss Paul Hokfelt Jr.
The positions kept changing and there was a no-holds-barred battle in the top 10 consisting of Sorensen, Hokfelt Jr, Hirsiger, Australian Joseph Mawson, three Frenchmen including championship leader Dorian Boccolacci, Valentin Moineault and Amaury Richard, Russian Denis Bulatov, newcomer to the championship Mexican Patricio O’Ward and Niclas Nylund from Finland.
The drivers went pedal to the metal in the final stages of the session to get the best out of their car and dial in a perfect lap. Hirsiger got to within 1/10th of a second of the benchmark time set by Sorensen.
Behind these two Hokfelt Jr, O’Ward, Moineault and Boccolacci were locked in battle separated by only 3/100th of a second!
On his last lap the newcomer to the championship Patricio O’Ward, put in a stunner and got to within 4/100th of a second of pole sitter Lasse Sorensen.
Behind the six quickest the double winner of the opening round on the Le Mans circuit Joseph Mawson was not very happy with his seventh place followed by Denis Bulatov who was eighth fastest in front of Tom Soubiron and Amaury Richard rounding out the top 10.
The overall performance of the ASA trainees on this difficult circuit should be underlined as the first 6 were separated by only 2/10th of a second.
Finally, a special mention for the two Valentins in the championship, Hasse Clot and Moineault, who learned before taking part in practice that they had passed their baccalaureate. This excellent example shows that sport and high level studies can be combined.
Sorensen set the first and second quickest times and will start race 1 from pole followed by O’Ward and Hirsiger.
The line-up for the first race will be established according the second-fastest time of each driver in the qualifying session. The classification of race 1 will decide the grid positions for race 2 with the first ten in race 1 starting in reverse order. The other drivers will start in the finishing order. The grid line-up for race 3 will be established according to the fastest time of each driver in qualifying.
Info Auto Sport Academy / © Photo KSP