Prette, Brown, Cheung and Smolka in pole at Valencia

Valencia’s Ricardo Tormo circuit today witnessed a hard-fought, thrilling qualifying round with contained gaps and much jostling for the front positions. By the session end, Louis Prette, Jack Brown, Eric Cheung and Agata Smolka had proved the quickest in their respective classes. Trofeo Pirelli. Louis Prette notched up the fastest time of the Trofeo Pirelli drivers, thanks to a lap completed in 1:35.186. The Formula Racing driver marked a time just 50 milliseconds faster than Niccolò Schirò (Rossocorsa), practically continuing the duel started in Bahrain. The two were closely tailed by Sam Smeeth (Baron Motorsport), 220 milliseconds behind the poleman and by Thomas Neubauer (Charles Pozzi – Courage), a mere thousandth of second behind the Englishman. Bjorn Grossmann (Octane 126) on his return and Alessandro Bonacini (Kessel Racing) also finished within the same second. Debutant Maximilian Mayer (Gohm Motorsport) posted seventh place. Trofeo Pirelli AM. Jack Brown (Ferrari UK – Graypaul Nottingham) with seventh outright place clinched pole position (1:36.182) among the drivers in the Trofeo Pirelli AM class. The Englishman got the better of his Slovakian rival Jan Danis (Scuderia Praga) by just 187 milliseconds and Alessandro Vezzoni (Rossocorsa – Pellin Racing) on his return. Emanuele Maria Tabacchi (Rossocorsa), leader of the overall standings, concluded the qualifying round in fourth place ahead of Martin Nelson (Scuderia Autoropa) and Tommaso Rocca (Rossocorsa). Marian Sufliarsky’s (Mertel Italo Cars Nürnberg) notable maiden outing should likewise be highlighted. Coppa Shell. Canadian Eric Cheung (Formula Racing) grabbed a tenth Ferrari Challenge pole thanks to an excellent 1:36.610 lap, 161 milliseconds quicker than Christian Kinch’s (Gohm Motorsport) best lap. The close matching and the limited breakaways led to eight drivers bunched up within a second of each other. The Gostner (Ineco – MP Racing) family monopolized the second row with Corinna and Thomas, while Ernst Kirchmayr (Baron Motorsport) and Tani Hanna (Formula Racing) will once again line up side-by-side as they had previously done in Bahrain. Coppa Shell AM. Agata Smolka (Rossocorsa) took pole position (1:38.119) with a margin of just 26 milliseconds over Danish driver Henrik Jansen (Formula Racing), confirming once more the progress made in terms of speed. Behind them were “Boris Gideon” (Formula Racing) and “Alex Fox” (Modena Motors – SLR) ahead of the leader of the general standings, Laurent De Meeus (Ferrari UK – HR Owen).