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Red Bull Ring Auto GP: Kimiya Sato takes first pole in series

Auto GP points leader Kimiya Sato claimed his first pole position in the series in Red Bull Ring qualifying

The Euronova driver topped the Q1 times on a 1m20.920s and then came out ahead in a battle with championship rival Kevin Giovesi in the Q2 session for the fastest 10 cars to take his maiden pole in his second season in Auto GP.

Sato and FMS Racing driver Giovesi traded times in Q2 before the Japanese driver secured pole with a 1m20.515s lap.

He subsequently went quicker still with a 1m20.563s, while Giovesi fell to fourth behind Virtuosi driver Tamas Pal Kiss and Sato's team-mate Shinya Michimi.

Sato's best lap put him nearly three tenths up on Kiss, who is racing for the first time with Virtuosi after starting the year with Zele Racing, and a further two tenths up on Michimi.

"Last year we struggled with qualifying pace, but we have been slowly improving this year," Sato told AUTOSPORT.

"Everything finally came together this weekend and we got the pole, which is important here because we have seen a lot of incidents at the first corner in Formula 1 and GP2."

Andrea Roda claimed fifth place in the second Virtuosi entry with a time just half a tenth behind Giovesi.

Michela Cerruti, a winner last time out at Imola, was sixth but more than a second from pole. Her title-chasing Super Nova team-mate Markus Pommer failed to set a time in Q2 due to an engine sensor problem.

Pos  Driver                 Team             Time       Gap
 1.  Kimiya Sato            Euronova         1m20.363s
 2.  Tamas Pal Kiss         Virtuosi UK      1m20.641s  +0.278s
 3.  Shinya Michimi         Euronova         1m20.852s  +0.489s
 4.  Kevin Giovesi          FMS              1m20.865s  +0.502s
 5.  Andrea Roda            Virtuosi UK      1m20.910s  +0.547s
 6.  Michela Cerruti        Super Nova       1m21.513s  +1.150s
 7.  Giuseppe Cipriani      Ibiza            1m22.105s  +1.742s
 8.  Christof von Grunigen  Zele             1m22.408s  +2.045s
 9.  Michele La Rosa        MLR 71/Euronova  1m22.774s  +2.411s
10.  Markus Pommer          Super Nova
11.  Salvatore de Plano     FMS              1m25.210s  Q1

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