Louis Deletraz put the controversy of race one behind him to take pole position for Sunday’s second race at the Circuito de Jerez, and will also be boosted by title rival Tom Dillmann being down in thirteenth.
The Fortec Motorsports driver secured his second pole position of the season at a very important stage of the season, with the Swiss racer eleven points behind Dillmann with three races remaining. The duo had collided during Saturday’s opener, spinning the latter into the gravel trap, with earned Deletraz a time penalty that saw him drop out of the points.
His lap of 1:26.943 was just enough to deny Jack Aitken a second pole position of the weekend, with just 0.003 seconds between Deletraz and the RP Motorsport debutant.
Race one winner Matevos Isaakyan continued his strong run of form by leading the SMP Racing battle ahead of team-mate Matthieu Vaxiviere, the duo locking out row two, while the similar-liveried SMP-backed Egor Orudzhev will start fifth for Arden Motorsport.
Beitske Visser will start sixth for Teo Martin Motorsport, just ahead of the second Arden of Aurélien Panis, while Roy Nissany’s difficult weekend continued as he could only manage eighth place on the grid for Lotus.
Nissany was just 0.008 seconds ahead of Pietro Fittipaldi in the session, with the second Fortec driver ninth ahead of Vitor Baptista of RP Motorsport.
For Dillmann however, it was a dreadful session, the Frenchman finishing thirteenth behind AVF by Adrian Vallés team-mate Alfonso Celis Jr, with both just behind Teo Martin Motorsport’s Yu Kanamaru.
Thomas Randle was fourteenth for Comtec Racing and will be looking to finish this time around after a lap two retirement on Saturday, while Rene Binder will start on the back row of the grid after having his best time deleted after causing a red flag.
The Lotus driver stopped at turn two early in the session, causing the red flags to fly, and unable to return to the track, he dropped from an early fourth place to fifteenth, ahead only of Giuseppe Cipriani of the Durango Racing Team.
Circuito de Jerez Race 2 Qualifying Result
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