Michal Matějovský claims virtual pole
05.10.13
Michal Matějovský took advantage of his home track to claim his first pole position in the ETCC ahead of his Krenek Motorsport team-mate Peter Fulín.
However he was later handed a grid penalty that will demote him to third on the grid for tomorrow’s Race 1. The same fate hit Ferenc Ficza who had qualified on pole position in the Single-Make Trophy.
SUPER 2000 - The fight for the pole saw Dušan Borković posting a provisional fastest lap of 2:13.234 that was soon bettered by Fulín’s 2:12.710. It seemed that the current championship leader had pocketed his fifth pole position out of five, when suddenly his team-mate Matějovský
clocked a 2:12.479 that settled the matter for good. Eventually Fulín improved to 2:12.687, but this was not enough. In the dying second Borković’s last attempt was spoiled by a slower car and the Serbian remained fourth overall and third in the class.
The second position gave Fulín two more points that helped him to stretch his leading margin to ten points ahead of Mat’o Homola who qualified fifth overall and fourth in the class.
SINGLE-MAKE TROPHY – Ferenc Ficza confirmed the fast pace he had showed in the morning’s practice and topped the class with a lap of 2:13.128 that annihilated the other competitors. Both Jordi Oriola (2:14.308) and Aurélien Comte (2:13.819) improved their lap times in the final stages of the session but they could not achieve any better than third and second in the class respectively.
Despite qualifying fifth in the class, Mario Dablander retained the point leadership, although his margin was reduced to six points ahead of Oriola and nine ahead of Comte and Nikolay Karamyshev.
SUPER 1600 – Kevin Krammes who had already clinched the class title, grabbed another pole position; he posted a provisional fastest time of 2:27.406 on his first flying lap and then improved twice to 2:27.315 and 2:26.486 on the last lap. Gilles Bruckner (2:27.556) and ‘Romeo Luciano’ (2.27:648) ranked second and third, more than one second adrift.
Ulrike Krafft qualified fourth in the class, but this was enough for helping her to reduce by one point her gap from Andrina Gugger in the Ladies Trophy.
GRID PENALTIES FOR MATĚJOVSKÝ AND FICZA
Michal Matějovský and Ferenc Ficza will be both demoted by three positions on the starting grid for tomorrow’s Race 1. The Czech and the Hungarian had both qualified on pole position in the Super 2000 and Single-Make Trophy classes, in first and third position overall.
The Stewards of the Meeting imposed them identical grid penalties for not respecting the weighing procedure during the qualifying session.
This means that Matějovský will slip down to third, behind Peter Fulín and Dušan Borković; at the same time Ficza will be demoted to sixth and Aurélien Comte will inherit pole position in the SMT class.