Mirko Bortolotti claimed pole position for the first FIA Formula Two Championship race at the Nurburgring. His best time in the qualifying session was three tenths faster than the next best man Mihai Marinescu.
The Italian traded top spot with Mikkel Mac during the early part of the session, but continued to find extra pace throughout the session to put himself comfortably in first place.
“That was a good session for us,” said Bortolotti. “We did some work on the car overnight after yesterday’s practice in preparation for today.
“I’ve also had to learn the track very quickly as it’s the first time I’ve been here and for me to tell the engineers how to improve the car. I’m very happy with the pole though and everyone did a great job. We’ve still got a long race ahead of us though so we’ll just have to see how it goes.”
Marinescu was pleased to have qualified on the front row. “I’m really happy with that session as we had good grip,” said the Romanian.
“Like Mirko we worked a lot on the car yesterday and P2 is a great position. For the race, I’m just going to try and keep clear of any incidents on the first corner and also look after my tyres as tyre wear is really big around here.”
Will Bratt and Alex Brundle will share the second row of the grid, with Ramon Pineiro and Jack Clarke lining up fifth and sixth.
Race winners Christopher Zanella and Miki Monras could only manage seventh and eighth respectively, with Jordan King and Mac rounding out the top ten.
1. Mirko Bortolotti, 1:48.388
2. Mihai Marinescu, +0.328s
3. Will Bratt, +0.437s
4. Alex Brundle, +0.570s
5. Ramon Pineiro, +0.629s
6. Jack Clarke, +0.736s
7. Christopher Zanella, +0.777s
8. Miki Monras, +0.868s
9. Jordan King, +0.966s
10. Mikkel Mac, +1.128s
