Giacomo Altoè on pole at Abu Dhabi

It was a thrilling Qualifying session at Abu Dhabi’s Yas Marina Circuit that saw Giacomo Altoè setting pole position by a very slim gap in the opening event of TCR Middle East.
The young Italian moved up to the top of the time sheet when there were only ten minutes left in the session. Altoè clocked a provisional fastest lap of 1:47.710 that was only 20 thousandths faster than Luca Engstler 1:14.730.
A few moments later they both improved – Altoè to 1:14.569 and Engstler to 1:14.673 – locking up the front row for tomorrow’s Race 1.
Mat’o Homola (1:14.782) and Florian Thoma (1:14.851) ranked third and fourth, two and three tenths from the pole respectively.
Kai Jordan claimed a brilliant fifth place (1:15.021) ahead of a trio of drivers all covered by four hundreds of a second: Jordi Oriola (1:15.263), Giovanni Altoè (1:15.267) and Lorenzo Veglia (1:15.305). Alberto Vescovi was sixth, not far away (1:15.619), while Costas Papantonis was disappointed; in fact he was forced to stop early by an issue with the rear suspension that prevented him from repeating the times he had set in Practice.
As a consolation he will be on pole position on the top-ten reverse grid for Race 2. A place that Martin Ryba missed by only four hundreds of a second.
The two 20-lap races will take place tomorrow at 11:00 and 14:25 local time respectively. Live timing will be available at http://middleeast.tcr-series.com.