Valencia: Final qualifying report

Franck Montagny gets both pole positions.

The Frenchman achieves both pole positions but the rain doesn't let the times go down.

Valencia, 11 May 2002 -- Franck Montagny (Racing Engineering) has been the real star of the first two qualifying sessions of the Telefónica World Series by Nissan top category by achieving the best timed laps. Tomorrow, the French champ will start from the first row of the grid in both races. The Circuit of Valencia attends more than 60,000 people tomorrow. Ricardo Zonta (Gabord Competición), third quickest driver in Session 1, was surprised by the rain in Session 2, and will start from the 19th position.

Two spectacular races are expected tomorrow at the Valencia Venue. The World Series Dallara Nissan cars will make a big explosion noise when they take the first start. Montagny will share the first row of the first race with Rafael Sarandeses (7Up GD Racing). The Brazilian Ricardo Zonta and the Belgian Bas Leinders (KTR) will start from the second row. Ander Vilariño (Epsilon by Graff) and Narain Kartikheyan (TATA RC Motorsport) topped the first six positions.

Zonta tried to improve his result in the second qualifying session for the second race but two incidents took his hopes away: the red flag caused by an incident with Montagny (racing Engineering) and the rain appeared 20 minutes before the session finished. Sarandeses, the fastest driver on Friday, suffered the same problem so they both will be starting the second race from the last position.

Due to the start of the rain, most of the drivers decided not to continue the session. Montagny (16 wins in the Open Telefónica 2001), set the fastest time in front of Kartikheyan, Leinders and Vilariño.

QUOTES

Frank Montagny
"I'm very satisfied with these two poles. I reckon that I was very lucky in the second session because the rain has conditioned the work of all: I got my best lap just before I exited with my car due to the rain. But the car is OK."

Rafael Sarandeses
"The first session was OK, but it was a surprise to be in the second position! I hope we can keep the similar performances during the races tomorrow."

Bas Leinders
"The rain stop us to go faster. I had only four flying laps in the second session due to the red flag and the wet track. I want to do a good job tomorrow"

Ricardo Zonta
"I found a lot of traffic in the first session. Referring to the second session--I have no words. It's been incredible. I decided to wait till the 20 last minutes and then the rain came--"

Narain Karthikeyan
"The set up for Friday was totally wrong, so we decided to go back, and thanks to that I could improve a lot my performance. For that reason we have been successful." <pre> 1st. Qualifying Session 1. Franck Montagny (FRA) Racing Engineering 1:24.696 2. Rafael Sarandeses (SPA) 7Up GD Racing 1:24.864 at 0.168 3. Ricardo Zonta (BRA) Gabord Competicioln 1:24.943 at 0.247 4. Bas Leinders (BEL) KTR 1:25.196 at 0.500 5. Ander Vilariño (SPA) Epsilon by Graff 1:25.344 at 0.648 6. Narain Karthikeyan (IND) Tata RC Motorsport 1:25.532 at 1.291

2nd Qualifying Session 1. Franck Montagny (FRA) Racing Engineering 1:25.149 2. Narain Karthikeyan (IND) Tata RC Motorsport 1:25.204 at 0.055 3. Bas Leinders (BEL) KTR 1:25.474 at 0.325 4. Ander Vilariño (SPA) Epsilon by Graff 1:25.522 at 0.373 5. Ángel Burgueño (SPA) Repsol Meycom 1:25.745 at 0.596 6. Antonio García (SPA) Adrian Campos Motorsport 1:25.827 at 0.678

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