Montanari takes race one pole
Christian Montanari has secured pole position for today's opening round of the World Series by Renault at Zolder
Driving for series debutants Prema, the San Marino driver faced stiff opposition from Interwetten pairing Andy Soucek and Eric Salignon. In a notable upturn in performance for the Austrian team, 20-year-old reigning Spanish Formula Three champion Soucek edged out his more experienced teammate for a place on the front row.
The best placed of the field's five British drivers was James Rossiter in fourth for Pons Racing.
Frenchman Patrick Pilet grabbed a fifth place starting slot, the GD driver followed by GP2 refugee Borja Garcia in sixth and 2005 event winner Enrico Toccacelo.
In a session interrupted three times by red flags, Montanari chose to complete his five laps in the middle of the session and was rewarded with a clean run. "We saw from yesterday that the circuit was slippery and there were likely to be red flags," recounted the polesitter. "We decided to go in the middle and were proved correct.
"You can say this is guessing but we think this is strategy. The car was fast on old tyres yesterday so I have a good feeling for the race."
Soucek had initially topped the timing screens but, after being displaced by Montanari, his final all-out effort resulted in a spin at Turn 1. Nevertheless, the rookie was pleased with the outcome.
"Before I came here I would have been happy with a top five," said Soucek. "Obviously I won't turn down a win, but I hope to stay away from trouble at the start and come away from here with some good points."
Qualifying times
Pos Driver Make Time 1. Christian Montanari Prema Powerteam 1:17.122 2. Andy Soucek Interwetten.Com 1:17.238 3. Eric Salignon Interwetten.Com 1:17.992 4. James Rossiter Pons Racing 1:18.178 5. Borja Garcia RC Motorsport 1:18.274 6. Enrico Toccacelo Eurointernational 1:18.410 7. Alx Danielsson Comtec 1:18.571 8. Jerome d'Ambrosio Tech 1 Racing 1:18.851 9. Robbie Kerr KTR 1:18.920 10. Hayanari Shimoda Victory Engineering 1:18.967 11. Steven Kane Epsilon Euskadi 1:18.992 12. Colin Fleming Carlin Motorsport 1:19.042 13. Alvaro Barba Jenzer Motorsport 1:19.051 14. Alessandro Bonetti Jenzer Motorsport 1:19.125 15. Gregory Franchi Prema Powerteam 1:19.201 16. Tomas Kostka Draco Multiracing USA 1:19.403 17. Sean McIntosh KTR 1:19.438 18. Celso Miguez Pons Racing 1:19.440 19. Ryo Fukuda Tech 1 Racing 1:19.511 20. Ben Hanley Cram Competition 1:19.513 21. Michael Aleshin Carlin Motorsport 1:19.683 22. Pastor Maldonado Draco Multiracing USA 1:19.923 23. Patrick Pilet GD Racing 1:19.937 24. Pascal Kochem Eurointernational 1:20.079 25. Milos Pavlovic Cram Competition 1:20.447 26. Matteo Meneghello GD Racing 1:20.562 27. Bruce Jouanny RC Motorsport 1:20.807 28. Edwin Jowsey Comtec 1:21.242
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