Jeroen Bleekemolen from the Netherlands takes up the first race of the Porsche Mobil1 Supercup in Istanbul from pole position. Bleekemolen needed just one flying lap to secure the fastest time with 1:58.477 minutes. This marks the 25-year-old ex-DTM pilot’s fourth pole position so far this season. On Sunday he starts from the front of the field for the third time in succession.
Behind Bleekemolen a head-to-head fight for grid positions took place. A total of 18 drivers qualified their Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars within one second of the pole-setter. The fight for position two on the front row was particularly thrilling. Damien Faulkner from Ireland posted the second fastest time after just two fast laps, only to be ousted by Patrick Huisman (Netherlands). But the quadruple champion was also shunted from this post. With twelve minutes left Stefan Rosina (Slovakia) snatched the number two position beside Jeroen Bleekemolen and with this achieved his best qualifying result so far this year.
Occupying row two of the grid are Damien Faulkner, currently ranking second in the overall classification, ahead of the 40-year-old Porsche stalwart Uwe Alzen (Germany), who travels to Istanbul sitting third overall in the rankings. Phil Qauife from Great Britain planted his GT3 Cup on fifth position, with Patrick Huisman starting from sixth. Taking up Sunday’s race in seventh and eighth respectively are Jaap van Lagen (Netherlands) and Jiri Janak (Czech Republic). The reigning Supercup champion and current points leader Richard Westbrook (Great Britain) qualified his Porsche for the 13-lap race on ninth.
The television “Eurosport 2” broadcasts the race live on Sunday, 26th August, from 11.20 hours. Moreover, “Eurosport” shows highlights of the race in its Sunday evening programme “Motorsports Weekend”.
Jeroen Bleekemolen (pole-sitter): “This is a fantastic result. My team again did a perfect job and this makes me optimistic for the race. The vehicle has a great set-up and I can hardly wait to go racing.”
Stefan Rosina (second qualifier): “I’m happy with my qualifying result. It all ran perfectly. This is the first time for me to start in the top ten. Fantastic. Thanks should go mostly to my team. They did a great job and prepared my car perfectly. I’m not expecting it to be easy tomorrow. But I won’t think too much about that right now – today I’m a happy man!”
Damien Faulkner (third qualifier): “Qualifying was relatively okay. But if we want to catch Jeroen tomorrow we have a tough task ahead of us. He was very quick today and is super confident for the race. Of course I want to win, but this will be hard. On a more positive note, at least Richard is way behind me in ninth. With an eye on the championship this is just the situation we need. This little break is necessary to prevent him from grabbing the title too soon.”
Qualifying result:
1. Jeroen Bleekemolen (NL), Golden Spike Pertamina Indonesia RT PZE, 1:58.477 minutes (162.198 kph)
2. Stefan Rosina (SK), Lechner Racing School Team, 0.300 seconds behind
3. Damien Faulkner (IR), Lechner Racing Team Bahrain, 0.425
4. Uwe Alzen (D), SPS performance, 0.467
5. Phil Quaife (GB), Racing Team Indonesia PZ Essen RA Beheer, 0.594
6. Patrick Huisman (NL), Konrad Motorsport, 0.600
7. Jaap van Lagen (NL), Bleekemolen Race Planet PZ Essen, 0.637
8. Jiri Janak (CZ), Schnbal Enigneering-LKM-Team Jebsen, 0.648
9. Richard Westbrook (GB), HISAQ® Competition, 0.657
10. David Saelens (B), Team IRWIN SAS, 0.666
11. Christian Menzel (D), tolimit, 0.701
12. Marc Hynes (GB), Team IRWIN SAS, 0.847
13. Olivier Maximin (F), MRS-Team PZ Aschaffenburg,0.891
14. Richard Williams (GB), Racing Team Indonesia PZ Essen RA Beheer, 0.896
15. Alessandro Zampedri (I), Lechner Racing Team Bahrain, 0.913
16. Nicolas Armindo (F), tolimit, 0.916
17. William Langhorne (USA), MRS-Team PZ Aschaffenburg, 0.919
18. Marc Basseng (D), HISAQ® Competition, 0.979
19. Christian Jones (AU), Golden Spike Pertamina Indonesia RT PZE, 1.311
20. Darryl O’Young (HK), Schnabl Engineering-LKM-Team Jebsen, 1.342
21. Mikael Forsten (FI), Konrad Motorsport, 1.586
22. Sebastiaan Bleekemolen (NL), Bleekemolen Race Planet PZ Essen, 1.864
23. Emilio de Villota (E), Konrad Motorsport, 1.903
24. Alexandre Negrão (BR), MRS-Team PZ Aschaffenburg, 2.024
25. Paul van Splunteren (NL), HSF/Porsche Centrum Eindhoven, 2.183
26. Andzej Dzikevic (LT), SPS performance, 2.349
27. Simon Frederiks (NL), HSF/Porsche Centrum Eindhoven, 2.817