EU 2.0: Donington qualifying notes

First pole for Van der Drift

Despite being the current Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 leader, Chris Van der Drift (JD Motorsport) was still to bag his first pole position of the season. But now it's job done! Both today and tomorrow, the New Zealander will start from the first row of the grid alongside Filipe Albuquerque (Motopark Academy) and Carlo Van Dam (SG Formula) respectively.

Carrying on from where they left off in collective testing, Chris Van der Drift and Kasper Andersen (JD Motorsport) were the first to put in fastest times.

A number of drivers soon came unstuck, including Bruno Fechner (SL Formula Racing) and Martin Plowman (Prema Power Team), but the session was not disrupted as a result.

Meanwhile, Atte Mustonen (Jenzer Motorsport) made it onto provisional pole. Bertrand Baguette (Epsilon Euskadi) confirmed that he is back on form by putting himself in the top five right away.

The Spaniard Jaime Alguersuari (Cram Competition) made a mistake midway through the session which saw him fly off into the gravel trap while most other drivers were going into the pits for a second set of fresh tyres.

Then, Dani Clos (Jenzer Motorsport) and Edoardo Piscopo (Cram Competition) took it in turns to mix it with those battling for supremacy.

With eight minutes of the session to go, Brendon Hartley (Motorsport Arena) added his name to the list of those to fall foul of Coppice Corner.

Five minutes from the chequered flag, Filipe Albuquerque (Motopark Academy) snatched the fastest time away from Atte Mustonen while Dani Clos made a mess of the first flying lap of his last run by taking a detour through the gravel.

With two minutes to go, Chris Van der Drift took the fastest back off Filipe Albuquerque. The New Zealander then improved on his time again just before the chequered flag to take pole in both the weekend's races.

Though he will start from the front row for race one, Filipe Albuquerque will only start from sixth in race two tomorrow. Instead, it will be Carlo Van Dam (SG Formula) who will line up in his place alongside Van der Drift.

Bertrand Baguette (Epsilon Euskadi) qualifies in third spot for both races. He will start from row two alongside Sebastien Buemi (Motopark Academy) and Atte Mustonen respectively.

-credit: renault