Qualifying: Enge blitzes the pack
FIA Formula 3000's man of the moment Tomas Enge stormed to a dominant pole position at Magny-Cours today (Friday)
The Czech's Coca-Cola-backed Nordic entry set his quickest tour on his second lap of the session, which was over half a second ahead of Super Nova's Mark Webber - a gap almost unheard of in F3000 terms. The quickest times were almost exclusively set in the opening moments of the first session and, try as they might, no one could get anywhere near his time.
"I knew I had to put everything into the first three laps," said Enge. "Just like Barcelona and the Nurburgring, the main reason was the rubber left by the Formula 1 cars. It was a fantastic time, although I did make one small mistake."
To add insult to the opposition's injury, Enge's car was stuck in third car for most of the second session, and would have been prone to attack.
Webber said: "Maybe I was too hard on the tyres initially, but I can't take it away from Tomas. He hooked it all up and the rest of us didn't."
Red Bull's Patrick Friesacher will start third, ahead of series leader Justin Wilson in the second Nordic entry.
Mario Haberfeld (Super Nova) is a season-best fifth, just a few hundreths ahead of sixth-placed David Saelens, who attempted to carve out his own version of the Magny-Cours circuit by ploughing across the grass and gravel in his European Minardi machine.
Sebastien Bordais (DAMS) will start from seventh, ahead of Arden Team Russia's Darren Manning. Jonathan Cochet was tenth in his second outing for the Prost Junior Team despite an off-track excursion. He was surprisingly demoted from ninth by Antonio Pizzonia's Petrobras machine in the dying moments of the session.
For full qualifying results click here.
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