Luca Engstler wins pole at Dubai
Luca Engstler completed a lap of Dubai’s International Circuit with the amazing lap time of 1:44.454 that gave him pole position for tomorrow’s Round 3 of the TCR Middle East international series.
The young German drove his Liqui Moly Team Engstler Volkswagen Golf GTI car to smash the 1:45 barrier, while all his competitors remained above that mark. His performance was even more remarkable when considering the 20 kilos of Success Ballast he has to carry.
With a last gasp effort Giacomo Altoè was able to post the second fastest lap of 1:45.127, but still with a gap of nearly seven tenths from Engstler. The Italian too was fighting against the weight, carrying 30 kilos of ballast on board of his Audi RS3 LMS.
Kai Jordan confirmed his consistent progress and qualified in a brilliant third position with the time of 1:45.271, just ahead of Danny Kroes (1:45.369) and Mat’o Homola (1:45.411).
Florian Thoma (1:45.670) ranked sixth, with Jordi Oriola and Giovanni Altoè behind him having clocked the same lap time (1:46.316).
Costas Papantonis qualified tenth and will be on pole position on the reverse grid for Race 2 – just like in Abu Dhabi last week – and will have Martin Ryba alongside him.
Lorenzo Veglia could not post a decent lap time due to a broken rear suspension; he will be forced to start from 11th in both the 14-lap races that will take place tomorrow at 10:45 and 13:55 local time respectively.
Live timing will be available at http://middleeast.tcr-series.com.
