The seemingly age old battle to be at the front between NEC powerhouses Josef Kaufmann Racing and ART Grand Prix continues today at Spa, with pole positions being earned by ART’s Max Defourny for race 1 and JKR’s Louis Delétraz, championship leader, for race 2.
Defourny was setting the pace from the get go of the first qualifying session, with his ART teammates sitting just behind him for a time. Then the JKR squad took to the track. Lighting up the timing screens in purple it was Defourny’s fellow Belgian Dries Vanthoor who leapt into provisional pole, consistently hammering in fastest laps and becoming the first driver of the day under 2’20.
However, as quickly as he shot to the top,Vanthoor slid down the order as Defourny found his groove once more. Callan O’Keeffe was flying for Fortec, setting himself on provisional pole a couple of times as the hundredths and thousandths fell away. For a while it seemed as though ART were losing out to their rivals, with only Defourny in the top 5 after having three cars leading the early stages of the session.
It wasn’t all over for ART though, as a 2’18.820 for Max Defourny secured them pole position for race 1. O’Keeffe held on for P2, while JKR’s leading driver was Kevin Jörg in 3rd.
After a 5 minute break action on track resumed once more, but in trickles rather than the stampedes sometimes seen at this historic circuit. The fight to be top dog between ART, Fortec and JKR resumed, but this time JKR were leading from the moment tyres touched tarmac.
Louis Delétraz’s pace showed why it’s him leading the championship, becoming the first and only driver to set a time in the 2’17s. Try as he might, Defourny could not replicate his earlier pole, having to settle for P2 this time. It was another P3 for Jörg, making it 2 JKR machines in the first two rows.
Race 1 starts at 13:00 local time, and can be followed here.
