RACERS
Jun 8, 20192 min
Fabienne Wohlwend has finally put together the single lap performance that she was long after and took an impressive pole position away from Jamie Chadwick and Beitske Visser.
Wohlwend posted a 1:33.285 lap in the second part of qualifying, which resulted to be fast enough to claim her maiden pole position from championship leader Jamie Chadwick and Beitske Visser.
The 21-year old from Lichtenstein was a mere 0.044 secs faster than Chadwick, in once again an incredibly close qualifying session on the Misano circuit.
Chadwick had topped the timesheets in the early stages of the session, but was ultimately unable to improve and will start second.
"I had an amazing lap, I was very confident. My engineer told me that I went purple in both sectors and wnen I watched on the big screen and saw that I was still P1 I couldn't believe it, I was so happy!" - commented an ecstatic Wohlwend.
"I was already climbing out of the car and I expected Jamie and Beitske to catch me, but then my engineer showed me I was still P1…it's overwhelming, unbelievable, I'm so excited".
"I'm very happy with qualifying, again on the front row. I feel like I missed out on pole a little bit because I didn't put my sectors together but we're in a good place and I'm feeling strong for the race and I think we can get a podium out of it" - said Jamie Chadwick.
From the second row, Dutch Beitske Visser (who also enjoyed the first position briefly during the qualifying) will line up alongside Alice Powell. The Brit managed to improve in the final minutes to overtake home star Vicky Piria, who once again had a competitive pace throughout.
"I think it was apretty good qualifying, I was overpushing slightly in the middle of the session but then I managed to improve in the end. One tenth and a half from pole, starting from P3 is still a good place to start the race and hopefully I can do a good start and see where we can go" - said Visser.
Yesterday practice pacesetter Miki Koyama was sixth fastest, right in front of Marta Garcia, who had a disrupted practice session yesterday caused by engine troubles.
Esmee Hawkey signed the 8th time, but has a 3 grid-drop penalty after the Zolder accident. Sarah Moore and Tasmin Pepper rounded out the top 10.
Sarah Bovy will make her racing debut starting from P13, after her best laptime was cancelled by the stewards, possibly for track limits. Other reserve driver Vivien Keszthelyi qualified P11.
After two outstanding Friday sessions in the top 3, Jessica Hawkins was relegated to P17 and will start from the penultime row.
The DTM-supporting race will see the green light at 16:10 local time.
In Fabienne's words:
“When I watched on the big screen and saw that I was still P1 I couldn't believe it, I was so happy!”
Ph credits: Racers-Behindthehelmet.com