Scheckter dominates Open Telefonica Estoril qualifying

Estoril, Portugal, 21th April.- South African driver Tomas Scheckter (Vergani Racing) will start from the pole-position tomorrow in both races of the second round of the Open Telefonica series at Estoril circuit in Portugal. Scheckter, who controlled perfectly first qualifying (1.32.123) by being almost half a second faster than Portuguese Manuel Giao (Scuderia Famá, 1.32.542) was a little bit more under pressure in qualifying 2, when Italian Andrea Belicchi (Door’s Racing Team) lapped best in 1.32.633. Not a good day for series leader Franck Montagny. The Frenchman got a fifth and a sixth place and will see the green lights tomorrow from the third row.

Tomas Scheckter gets his first poles this season -he got two as well in his series debut at Valencia in 1999- because he lost his best lap time in session 1 at Jarama (series first event) after being penalized when his car was found below minimum weight.

Nevertheless, the ‘surprise’ today has been Frenchman Jonathan Cochet. Current French F3 champion, who drove yesterday the Coloni Nissan CN1/C for the first time, will start from third place (second row) in both races. Cochet, test driver for team Prost Acer F1, shows up as another favourite to win the series.

Races tomorrow at 11.00 (16 laps) and 13.00 hours (24 laps with pit stop) local time (GMT). Both broadcast live on TVE Spain and SPORT TV Portugal.

<pre> Results Session 1 (starting grid race 1) 1. Tomas Scheckter (RSA, Vergani Racing) 1.32.123 a 184,762 km/h - POLE POSITION 2. Manuel Giao (POR, Scuderia Famá) 1.32.542 a 0.419 3. Jonathan Cochet (FRA, Venturini Racing) 1.32.700 a 0.577 4. Andrea Belicchi (ITA, Door’s Racing Team) 1.32.762 a 0.639 5. Franck Montagny (FRA, Epsilon by Graff) 1.32.781 a 0.658

Results Session 2 (starting grid race 2) 1. Tomas Scheckter (RSA, Vergani Racing) 1.32.515 a 183,979 km/h - POLE POSITION 2. Andrea Belicchi (ITA, Door’s Racing Team) 1.32.633 a 0.118 3. Jonathan Cochet (FRA, Venturini Racing) 1.32.654 a 0.139 4. Ángel Burgueño (ESP, Repsol YPF Meycom) 1.33.218 a 0.703 5. Manuel Giao (POR, Scuderia Famá) 1.33.245 a 0.730

-OT