EU 2000: Bilbao qualifying summary

Jenzer dominates

The two Jenzer Motorsport drivers dominated qualifying on Bilbao's street circuit. Michael Ammerm0x00fcller and Adrian Zaugg will start in pole position for the two races to be held this evening and tomorrow morning.

A little bit of history was made on Friday by Westley Barber (Comtec Racing), who will go down in the annals as the first driver to have graced the Bilbao circuit. The British driver was out ahead of the rest of the field for the meeting's very first free practice session, which was dominated by Yann Clairay (SG Formula).

Session 1

And, when it came to qualifying, Yann Clairay wasted little time in setting the first series' fastest time with a lap of 2'02''486, a second faster than during free practice. Then Adrian Zaugg (Jenzer Motorsport) countered impressively, becoming the first driver to dip below the 2'02'' mark. Clairay retaliated with a time of 2'01''716, taking the provisional pole in the process. The fight for 3rd place was fierce between Westley Barber, Patrick Rocha (Prema Power Team) and Carlo Van Dam (SG Formula), separated by only 31/1000ths! In the final seconds, Van Dam edged ahead of Rocha.

The second series was underway for little time before Michael Ammerm0x00fcller took the quickest time. The session was then interrupted after five minutes, as Dima Raikhlin crashed and went off the circuit (SL Formula Racing). A few minutes after the restart, the session was interrupted again when Dani Clos went off the circuit (Pons Racing). With the second restart, Ammerm0x00fcller was quick to get back into action. The German driver improved Clairay's best time on no less than three occasions, finally taking pole position in 2'00''732! 6/10ths back, Bertrand Baguette (Epsilon Euskadi) finished ahead of Kamui Kobayashi (Prema Power Team), Filipe Albuquerque (Motopark Oschersleben) and the very young driver, Atte Mustonen (Koiranen Bros Motorsport).

Session 2

Once again Michael Ammerm0x00fcller quickly got the better of his rivals, moving ahead of Kamui Kobayashi right from the outset. The Japanese driver did not however take long to retaliate. Junior Strous (Mr. Glow Motorsport) and Bertrand Baguette even managed to move past the Eurocup leader, who appeared to be waiting for the right moment to strike. Meanwhile, Kobayashi bettered his earlier time, dipping under the 2'01'' mark. When Ammerm0x00fcller finally came back out, the pole swapped hands once again, but only by 1/10th! Bertrand Baguette, Junior Strous and Filipe Albuquerque all set faster times than Kobayashi and moved closer to the German towards the end of the session. But Ammerm0x00fcller remained in pole, stretching the gap over the others by setting a time of 2'00''435 on his final lap!

In the second series, Kasper Andersen (Team Formula Sport) was the long time holder of the best lap, until Adrian Zaugg moved up to the top of the time screens with a lap of 2'00''768. After clipping the wall, Yann Clairay came into the pits to change his tyres and then set off in search of a quick lap. At that point of the session, it was Alan Hellmeister (AR Motorsport) who held the second fastest time. Zaugg bettered his time again, moving ahead of his teammate Ammerm0x00fcller with a lap of 2'00''356! Not content to stop there, the South African driver then became the only driver to lap in under two minutes, with a time of 1'59''589! In the closing seconds of the session, Carlo Van Dam grabbed second place from Hellmeister, with Teemu Nyman (Motopark Oschersleben) and Xavier Maasen (JD Motorsport) the other drivers making up the top 5.

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