Cagliari, Saturday May 30th - Current World Champion Shaun Torrente will start the Regione Sardegna Grand Prix of Italy in pole position after topping the qualifying times. But the Victory Team driver will have a strong challenge from this season’s three Sharjah Team drivers, who secured the next three fastest laps in the final qualifying round, though frustratingly for Grant Trask, his flying lap was cancelled having been penalised for impeding others.
Qualification 1
Peter Morin came out on top in yesterday’s first Free Practice session, and the flying Frenchman maintained his dominant pace from the outset, putting down a strong time of 45.271 seconds that kept him at the top of the leaderboard for the first half of the opening round of qualifying.
Morin was eventually dethroned by Rusty Wyatt, who put down a time of 44.896 seconds to take the top spot. Wyatt managed to maintain his position amidst strong challenges from World Championship winners Shaun Torrente and Jonas Andersson, who each came within a whisker of Wyatt but could not quite match him, with times of 45.076 seconds and 45.099 seconds respectively.
At the other end of the table, the last few minutes saw a fluctuating battle to remain among the top twelve and therefore among those progressing to the next qualifying round. As the clock ticked down, Ben Jelf looked set to miss out on the next round of qualifying, only for a rapid last lap at 45.855 seconds to pull him up to tenth place. With one minute left, Alexandre Bourgeot found the pace to lift him into twelfth, only to be outdone by Bartek Marszalek with just seconds to go, relegating Bourgeot to thirteenth.
Joining Bourgeot outside of the top twelve was Erik Stark in fourteenth place, who started the qualifiers strongly with a time of 46.645seconds that placed him in third, but soon after suffered engine issues that forced a yellow flag and the Swede to be towed away just three minutes into the session.
Rashed Al Qemzi, Marit Stromoy, Duarte Benavente, and Cédric Deguisne filled out the rest of the eighteen positions.
Qualification 2
Torrente set down the quickest opening time in the second round of qualifiers, coming in at 43.312 seconds on his opening lap. The current World Champion proved unbeatable, and that first lap kept him at the top throughout the session. Morin once again proved his pace, shadowing Torrente with a time marginally slower by 0.181 seconds that kept the Frenchman in second place.
Sharjah Team showcased the competitiveness of their racing package this year, with all three of their drivers qualifying for the final round having come in succession to each other, with Wyatt, Stefan Arand, and Grant Trask finishing in third, fourth and fifth respectively. Marszalek was the last driver to make it into the top six and therefore into the final round of qualifying, coming in with a time of 43.965 seconds.
Just outside of the qualifying places for the next round were the two Comparato Racing drivers, Sami Selio and Alberto Comparato, coming in seventh and eighth respectively. Alec Weckstrom proved unable to match the pace of fellow Victory Team driver Torrente, finishing in ninth.
Former World Champion Andersson pushed his new Team Abu Dhabi boat as much as he could in the closing minutes of the round, but a competitive pace eluded him, with the Swede finishing in tenth. Ben Jelf and Brent Dillard closed out the pack in eleventh and twelfth respectively.
Qualification 3
Torrente was the first to complete a lap in the final round of qualifiers in Cagliari. The Victory Team driver came in at 43.258 seconds, an even stronger time than that which saw him top the previous round. This time, however, Torrente’s flying first lap would not keep him at the top, as Sharjah Team’s Wyatt quickly pipped him to the top spot after a lap of 42.727 seconds. Soon after, fellow Sharjah Team driver Arand put in his own flying performance, beating Torrente for second place with a time of 42.953 seconds.
Torrente started this weekend by declaring he was in Cagliari for one simple reason: to win. That winning mindset meant the American was unperturbed by the Sharjah Team usurpers, rising to the challenge and putting down a 42.533 seconds lap that saw him regain his pole position and ultimately secure a thirteenth career pole.
As if the strength of Wyatt and Arand were not enough, Sharjah Team proved themselves a triple threat after Trask mounted a challenge to Torrente of his own, beating his teammates and putting down a time just 0.046 seconds behind the current World Champion. But that flying lap ended up not counting for Trask after he was penalised for impeding other drivers, allowing teammates Wyatt and Arand to retain their positions in second and third respectively.
Morin proved unable to replicate his table-topping pace in the final round of qualifiers, finishing fourth after putting in his fastest 42.922 seconds time on his final lap of the session. Behind him finished Marszalek in fifth, and Trask who closed out the top six qualifying positions following his penalisation.
