Rast On Supercup Pole At Silverstone As Home Favourites Struggle

Rene Rast continued his strong run of form in the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup by taking pole position at Silverstone, as his British title rivals Nick Tandy and Sean Edwards could only manage fourth and tenth on the grid respectively.

Veltins Lechner Racing driver Rast arrived at the Silverstone round off the back of wins at the previous rounds at Monaco and the World Cup event at the Nurburgring. He was 0.322 seconds quicker than his nearest rival in qualifying, his late effort relegating teammate Norbert Siedler to second.

“To be on pole in Silverstone is a very special feeling,” said defending champion Rast. “I'm very confident for the race as I only just ran in my second set of tyres over one lap today.

“I hope to be able to make up a few points in the championship and I'm especially pleased about our team effort with Norbert starting beside me.”

Siedler was pleased to make a second consecutive front row lockout for his team. “To have the first row occupied by Veltins Lechner Racing – now that's perfect,” he said. “Still, I'm not entirely satisfied. With my second set of tyres I wasn't able to realise everything that was possible today.”

Supercup rookie Kevin Estre qualified a surprise third for Hermes Attempto Racing.

“To stand so far at the front of the grid is great, especially on a famous circuit like Silverstone,” said the Frenchman. “I didn't get anywhere with my first set of tyres, I was far away from the top. On my second set I immediately put in my fastest lap. Of course, I'm very pleased with my third place.”

Big things were expected of Tandy and Edwards at their home round, but neither could deliver in qualifying at least. Konrad Motorsport driver Tandy did at least get his car onto the second row alongside Estre, which was much better than championship leader Edwards who slumped to tenth place for Team Abu Dhabi by tolimit.

Kuba Giermaziak continued his impressive run of form with fifth place on his 21^st birthday, one place ahead of Edwards' teammate Jeroen Bleekemolen. Christian Engelhardt, winner of the season opener at Istanbul, was seventh ahead of practice pacesetter Stefan Rosina.

James Sutton, making a guest appearance from the Porsche Carrera Cup Great Britain, secured ninth on the grid ahead of Edwards. Other runners from the British series were Michael Meadows in 11^th, Benji Hetherington in 17^th, Sam Tordoff in 20^th, Ahmad Al Harthy in 21^st, Keith Webster in 24^th and Andrew Shelley in 26^th and last place.

Qualifying results:

Pos.	Driver	Team	Time	Gap
1	Rene Rast	Veltins Lechner Racing	2:05.621
2	Norbert Siedler	Veltins Lechner Racing	2:05.943	0.322
3	Kevin Estre	Hermes Attempto Racing	2:06.076	0.455
4	Nick Tandy	Konrad Motorsport	2:06.082	0.461
5	Kuba Giermaziak	Verva Racing Team	2:06.095	0.474
6	Jeroen Bleekemolen	Team Abu Dhabi by tolimit	2:06.133	0.512
7	Christian Engelhart	Konrad Motorsport	2:06.168	0.547
8	Stefan Rosina	Verva Racing Team	2:06.208	0.587
9	James Sutton	SAS International	2:06.319	0.698
10	Sean Edwards	Team Abu Dhabi by tolimit	2:06.325	0.704
11	Michael Meadows	SAS International	2:06.428	0.807
12	Patrick Huisman	Team Bleekemolen	2:06.587	0.966
13	Robert Lukas	Hermes Attempto Racing	2:06.665	1.044
14	Matt Halliday	Sanitec Aquiles MRS Team	2:06.791	1.170
15	Sebastiaan Bleekemolen	Team Bleekemolen	2:06.839	1.218
16	Alessandro Zampedri	Team Bleekemolen	2:07.246	1.625
17	Benji Hetherington	Porsche Cars Great Britain	2:07.446	1.825
18	Mathias Lauda	Konrad Motorsport Austria	2:07.507	1.886
19	William Langhorne	Sanitec Aquiles MRS Team	2:07.631	2.010
20	Sam Tordoff	Schnabl Engineering	2:07.885	2.264
21	Ahmad Al Harthy	Porsche Cars Great Britain	2:08.208	2.587
22	Andreas Mayerl	Konrad Motorsport Austria	2:09.168	3.547
23	Khaled Al Qubaisi	Team Abu Dhabi by tolimit	2:09.607	3.986
24	Keith Webster	Schnabl Engineering	2:10.459	4.838
25	Yucel Ozbek	Sanitec Aquiles MRS Team	2:11.479	5.858
26	Andrew Shelley	Porsche Cars Great Britain	2:11.886	6.265