Brazilian V8 Stock Cars: Wind plays crucial role on Cacá Bueno’s pole position

The qualifying session held this Saturday afternoon in a cold and windy Cascavel was one of the most hectic of the year. The fast and challenging 3.058 km-long racetrack had dried out half an hour before the start of the session. Adding a cold surface and 22 kph blasts of wind, some drivers couldn’t get the most of their machinery. Others - including some favorites to clinch the pole - went off the track. In this scenario, Cacá Bueno took his third pole position of the season.

"It was difficult, because the track conditions were changing all the time because of people going off the track and getting back bringing some grass and moist to the tarmac, so you could find the same corner at the next lap in totally different grid conditions", stated Bueno, five-time Stock Car champion.

In fact, several of them spun, crashed or went off: Bia Figueiredo, Felipe Guimarães, Nestor Girolami, Allam Khodair, Cacá himself, Valdeno Brito, Marcos Gomes and Feilpe Fraga - the last trio was determinant on Cacá succeeding to clinch the first grid spot.

Brito was in the same group as Bueno. "I made a mistake and I spun two turns to the finish line. Then, Valdeno crashed and the red flag was waved before I crossed the line. Turns out, I had one more chance to try a good lap, but I was very conservative, so right after I jumped out of the car I was pretty angry at myself because I believe I could do a lap below 1min02s", said Bueno, who registered a 1min02s143. After him, the championship top-3 had their attempts to beat the Red Bull laptime, and all failed: Marcos Gomes spun, standings leader Felipe Fraga crashed (but still returned) and Bueno’s teammate Daniel Serra wasn’t able to put together three good sectors.

Vitor Genz had a surprisingly good performance after taking P2. He was on the group number seven of ten and held the pole for a good time before Cacá made his mark by only 0s038. "It was close, but we did a good lap. I think the team are in good shape. We’ve put both cars inside the top-10, and I have a car to fight for victory or at least a podium finish tomorrow", said the Eisenbahn Racing ace.

Max Wilson was third, followed by Marcos Gomes, Rubens Barrichello, Ricardo Zonta, Rafael Suzuki, Diego Nunes, Nestor Girolami, Daniel Serra, Átila Abreu, Thiago Camilo, Valdeno Brito, Lucas Foresti and Guga Lima closing the top-15 grid spots for tomorrow.

As usual, there will be two races: a 45-minute starting at 1 pm and the second heat, 30 minutes long, at 2:10 pm. In Brazil, SporTV channel broadcasts both races live.

Qualifying Results

(Results subject to official confirmation by the stewards)

Vicar