World Final qualifying notes

Huelkenberg Wins Super Pole.

Bahrain, December 14, 2005... Super Pole for the first ever Formula BMW World Final saw the return of the rivalry between Nicolas Huelkenberg (Josef Kaufmann Racing) and Sebastien Buemi (ASL Team Muecke-Motorsport), which has been a feature of the 2005 Formula BMW ADAC Championship. The outcome was also the same with the champion, Nicolas Huelkenberg, setting the fastest time to claim pole position for his heats and the added bonus of 1,000 US Dollars.

Unfortunately after the Super Pole had been run, the qualifying results for Group 2 were amended. The fastest in this group, Robert Wickens (Team Autotecnica) was disqualified for a technical infringement and relegated to the back of the grid. Also disqualified was second placed Edoardo Piscopo (Eurointernational SRL) for another technical infringement. His team has now lodged an appeal to the FIA and this allows him to keep his fastest time pending the outcome of this appeal. Piscopo was disqualified immediately following the session, which meant the third driver in his group, Sebastien Buemi, was elevated to fastest and so competed in the Super Pole.

At the end of the one lap shoot-out Huelkenberg's quickest time was 1min 28.161secs and he commented, "My lap was not perfect as I missed my braking point into the first corner and was not on the ideal line, but at the end it was enough to get me in front of Buemi. My car is quite good with a good balance and so I am satisfied with that. There are a lot of guys with very close times and on the long straight there should be a lot of slip streaming. I think we will have some good races. To win would mean a lot as it is the first World Final, all the four BMW series have come together and to be the best would be special."

When Group 1 qualifying began, it was soon obvious this would be a battle between the drivers from the German series. Nicolas Huelkenberg (Josef Kaufmann Racing) set the pace in the first part of the 30-minute session, but then with just over nine minutes to go Portugal's João Urbano (ASL Team Muecke-Motorsport) went to the top of the times. Eventually after 7 minutes 20 seconds the German driver set his time of 1min 27.171secs and that was never bettered.

While it was Italy's Edoardo Piscopo (Eurointernational SRL) who was the first driver in Group 2 to break the one-minute twenty-seven-second barrier, it was again his fellow Formula BMW USA Championship driver, Canada's Robert Wickens (Team Autotecnica), who was setting the pace. He went top halfway through the session and remained there, setting his best time with just over eight minutes to go although this has now been disallowed and he will start from the back of the grid.

The situation is now that Huelkenberg will be on pole for Group A followed by the odd numbers in his Group 1, Edoardo Piscopo will be on pole for Group B followed by the odd numbers in his Group 2, Marco Holzer will be on pole for Group C followed by the even numbers in his Group 1 and Sebastien Buemi will be on pole for Group D followed by the even numbers in his Group 2.

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