Valencia: Racing Engineering final qualifying report

Franck Montagny two times in pole position!

RACING ENGINEERING's drivers Franck Montagny and Justin Wilson showed an impressive performance in today's two qualifying sessions and go into tomorrow's first two races of the World Series by Nissan from very promising positions. Franck Montagny marked the fastest times in both qualifying sessions and therefore starts both races in pole position. Justin Wilson, not lucky with weather and traffic on the track, starts in 7th and 9th position.

Qualifying for 1st race:
The first qualifying session, taking place under dry conditions, was characterized by a hard fight for pole position between Montagny, Wilson, Leinders, Sarandeses and Zonta. In the end Franck Montagny marked the fastest time and starts into tomorrow's first race in pole position-- ahead of Sarandeses and Zonta. Justin Wilson has been under the top two until three minutes before the session finished. He had a lot of traffic on the track and could therefore not improve his lap time.

After the first qualifying Franck announced,"I am really confident with the car. I made a mistake in the last lap and therefore could have been even faster."

Qualifying for 2nd race:
The qualifying for the second race was started under dry conditions but very soon it started to rain. After marking the fastest lap time, Franck Montagny came into the pits to get new slicks. When leaving to the track again, it started to rain and due to driving over the curbs, Franck went off the track. Nevertheless Franck was never in danger of losing his pole position. Justin Wilson started the second qualifying shortly after Franck and had to come back into the pits for rain tires. Justin goes into tomorrow's second race from 9th position. 10 positions behind him-- Ricardo Zonta.

After both sessions Justin claimed,"The car is really good and competitive. I was not too lucky with the weather. If the weather continues like this, there will be exciting races tomorrow."

Franck, asked about his accident, claimed,"Overall it has been a very good day. I am looking forward to the two races tomorrow. During the second qualifying I saw that it started to rain and knew I just have to stay on the track. Then I touched the wet curbs and went off."

Alfonso de Orleans, team manager, stated,"The mechanics, engineers and drivers have been working hard for this first race. It's been very hard due to the fact that we received the cars so late. Now everything is falling into order. With these first results I am confident we'll be doing well this season."

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