Sean Edwards narrowly beat fellow Briton Nick Tandy to pole position for the second round of the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup at Barcelona.
Edwards, driving for the Team Abu Dhabi by tolimit squad, posted a quickest time just 0.072 seconds quicker than Konrad Motorsport driver Tandy.
“That was a great qualifying,” said Edwards. “I got a perfect lap in and that was enough for pole. Now I hope to turn it into a win tomorrow. I managed it last year, but I was handed a penalty and victory was gone. Now that I'm at the front, I jolly well want to stay there.”
Tandy said: “If it wasn't for my bumble in my second attempt at pole I would have done better. But still I'm satisfied. It looks like the championship is still wide open this season. I've saved a fresh set of tyres for the race. Sean shouldn't expect an easy ride, not for one minute – that I can promise.”
There were a couple of surprise names that got themselves onto the second row for Sunday's race. Pole Kuba Giermaziak, who is combining his Supercup programme this year with a season in the Formula 3 Euro Series, took third for the Verva Racing Team.
“Today we had the potential to yield an even better result, but we're still happy,” said Giermaziak. “Now we'll try to bring home a podium result. I've heard that no one from Poland has achieved this yet in the Supercup. It'd be wonderful if I were the first to do it. But it won't be easy, my rivals are simply too good. After this great qualifying we're feeling very optimistic.”
Fourth was Kevin Estre of Hermes Attempto Racing. The Frenchman made a strong Supercup debut last time out in Istanbul. The third row of the grid sees two-time champion Jeroen Bleekemolen (Abu Dhabi by tolimit) line up alongside the reigning champion Rene Rast of Veltins Lechner Racing.
Rast's teammate Norbert Siedler qualified seventh but will be forced to take a three-place grid penalty for ignoring a yellow flag in practice. This moved Istanbul winner Christian Engelhardt (Konrad) up to seventh on the grid, with Verva's Stefan Rosina eighth and Hermes Attempto driver Robert Lukas ninth.
