Pietro Fittipaldi (Lotus) captured his third pole of the 2017 World Series Formula V8 3.5 season today at Spa-Francorchamps. With a fastest lap of 1:58.731, the Brazilian led the way in Qualifying 2 and will start on the point in the Saturday race. His team-mate, Austrian Renè Binder (Lotus) will start alongside him after ending up 0.267s adrift. The pole was set at the blistering average speed of 212,4 Km/h.
The session started with dry conditions after the heavy rainfalls that hampered Collective Test 1 on Thursday. Fittipaldi was fast from the beginning, setting an early pace of 2:00.794 with his first set of new tires. He was followed by Konstantin Tereschenko (Teo Martin Motorsport) and Diego Menchaca (Fortec Motorsports).
The Mexican then improved his lap late in the session and retained a row 2 position, ending up once again as the best rookie as happened in Qualifying 1. Fourth place went to Russian Matevos Isaakyan (SMP Racing by AVF), who edged Israeli racer Roy Nissany (RP Motorsport). Qualifying 1 leader Alfonso Celis Jr. (Fortec Motorsports) was sixth fastest. He will start from the pole in today’s Race 1 at 16:11.
Sharing the fourth row will be Egor Orudzhev (SMP Racing by AVF) and Damiano Fioravanti (RP Motorsport), while the top-10 was completed by the Teo Martin Motorsport pairing of Tereschenko and Nelson Mason
Pietro Fittipaldi (Lotus)
“I’m happy for the pole position, for sure we’re gonna push in both races starting from the front row. I’m looking forward to two more wins here as in Silverstone. Thanks to the whole Lotus team for the great effort”.
