EU: Series Monza qualifying report

Rookie Harvey Takes Second Pole of Season.

Monza, 11 September. It was a good day for the Rookies in Monza as Jack Harvey (GB/Fortec Motorsport) claimed pole for race one and Timmy Hansen (SE/Mu cke Motorsport) was third quickest. Separating these two on the time sheets was championship leader, Felipe Nasr (BR/Eurointernational).

As expected the session was all about getting a tow and slipstreaming. The early leader in the session was Daniel Juncadella (ES/Eurointernational), but once the cars had pitted for new tyres the leader board changed. Rupert Svendsen-Cook (GB/Raikkonen Robertson Racing) was first to pu t in a quick time with about five minutes to go. Then Hansen went to the top, breaking the two minute barrier, and just after the chequered flag it was Harvey who moved ahead of Hansen, followed by Nasr, with this being the British drivers first pole since Zandvoort.

Next up was Jim Pla (FR/DAMS) winner of the last four races, who will actually start from third as Nasr has a penalty of dropping five grid places from the last race in Spa-Francorchamps. Meanwhile other championship front runners Michael Christensen (DK/Mucke Motorsport) and Robin Frijns (NL/Josef Kaufmann Racing) were not able to get the tows and so had to settle for ninth and tenth respectively.

The track, as in the morning, proved quite difficult with several drivers, including Nasr, going off into the gravel. Also in this group was guest driver Cristof van Grunigen (CH/Daltec Racing), while another newcomer, Kevin Friesacher (CH/Scuderia Coloni SRL), came to a halt on the side of the track after seven minutes.

1st - Round 15., 8th Round 16 and Top Rookie: Jack Harvey (GB/Fortec Motorsport): "I don't really know what to say about that. Obviously I did some changes and that made it a lot better, as our recent form has not been so good. I actually felt I messed the last lap up. I was in a bit of traffic but then the team radioed me and said I was on pole so it couldn't have been too bad. I think I got a quadruple tow on that lap, as going through Ascari I was behind George Katsinis and ended up towing up to Parabolica and got him before the corner, so didn't lose too much time there. Then I got a tow off Ollie Millroy to the line so it must have helped."

2nd - Rounds 15&16 Felipe Nasr (BR/Eurointernational): "On the first set of new tyres I made a mistake and went off at Parabolica. But then I concentrated on doing my job and when I put on the second set of tyres and made some adjustments it worked out. When I went on the gravel, I had some problems with the throttle. I got a good tow on the lap before my last one and it helped me on the main straight. That was a good result for me."

3rd - Round 15, 5th Round 16: Timmy Hansen (SE/Mu cke Motorsport): "It is so much about tactics on this track and you need to plan a really good tow to get a fast lap. That is what everything is about as you can win more in a tow than you can in a corner. It was really difficult as everyone was slowing down, speeding up, slowing down, speeding up, so you had to be awake to see what everyone else was doing and planning how far behind you should be. However, I think my second best lap was without a tow, so we shall see how far I can go with that."

3rd - Round 15, 1st Round 16: Jim Pla (FR/DAMS): "I was quite far down on the grid on the first set of tyres. On the second set I tried to do a better job to put a good set of sectors together.I was second at the end and I did three laps of the same time. I would have liked to be further up on the grid for race one, but I was very happy to get pole for the second race."

-credit: fbmw eu