Varhaug grabs maiden IFM pole

The 18-year-old Norwegian came out on top of a drying qualifying session in which five drivers squabbled over pole in the dying minutes.

The times tumbled with every flying lap as a dry line emerged and Varhaug nicked pole away from fellow joint championship leader Fabio Leimer with under a minute remaining.

Leimer had been on top for most of the half hour session and was the first driver to break into the 2m02s and then the 2m01s, but Varhaug timed his last flyer perfectly and went nearly half a second quicker.

Josef Kral briefly popped onto provisional pole on home soil, until Varhaug came round and beat his time by a tenth.

"The track was getting drier and drier, and Pal was half a lap behind me so he could beat me time on his last lap," said Kral.

Leimer was pushed down to third ahead of Nicolas Maulini and Sergei Afanasiev, who had both held second spot prior to the last lap efforts of Varhaug and Kral.

Erik Janis completed the top six on his return to the series, having last appeared in 2007, with Vladimir Arabadzhiev and Alexander Rossi seventh and eighth.

Pos Driver                  Team         Time          Gap
 1. Pal Varhaug             Jenzer       2m01.124s
 2. Josef Kral              JD           2m01.203s  +0.079
 3. Fabio Leimer            Jenzer       2m01.545s  +0.421
 4. Nicolas Maulini         Jenzer       2m01.865s  +0.741
 5. Sergei Afanasiev        JD           2m01.875s  +0.751
 6. Erik Janis              ISR          2m02.009s  +0.885
 7. Vladimir Arabadzhiev    JD           2m02.085s  +0.961
 8. Alexander Rossi         ISR          2m02.737s  +1.613
 9. Alessandro Kouzkin      Cram         2m03.496s  +2.372
10. Simon Trummer           Iris         2m03.621s  +2.497
11. Patrick Reiterer        Iris         2m04.474s  +3.350
12. Kasper Andersen         Hitech       2m04.610s  +3.486
13. Kelvin Snoeks           AR           2m04.931s  +3.807
14. Matteo Davenia          Cram         2m06.157s  +5.033
15. Dennis Retera           AR           2m06.208s  +5.084