18 octobre 2015
Ben Barnicoat takes season’s final pole
The final qualifying session of the 2015 Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 season ended with Ben Barnicoat (Fortec Motorsports) claiming his second pole of the year. The Racing Steps Foundation driver will head the grid for Sunday’s race at the Circuito de Jerez from Anthoine Hubert (Tech 1 Racing) and Louis Delétraz (Josef Kaufmann Racing). Fresh from his two podium finishes on Saturday, Ignazio D’Agosto (Manor MP Motorsport) will complete the second row, with Simon Gachet (Tech 1 Racing) and James Allen (ARTA Engineering) just behind him. Meanwhile, Saturday’s two-time race winner, the championship-leading Jack Aitken (Koiranen GP), will line up on the 12th row, with title rivals Louis Delétraz and Kevin Jörg (Josef Kaufmann Racing) starting 13th and 14th respectively.
Group B
Kevin Jörg and Jake Hughes (Koiranen GP) were the first to post times in the driving rain before Anthoine Hubert set a benchmark of 1:55.601 on his second lap. The worsening conditions brought the session to an early end, leaving the Frenchman out front from Ignazio D’Agosto, James Allen, Jake Hughes (Koiranen GP) and Dennis Olsen (Manor MP Motorsport), with the title-chasing Kevin Jörg going sixth-fastest ahead of rookie Jehan Daruvala (Fortec Motorsports).
Group A
The drivers in Group B had the elements very much against them when they took to the track. Ukyo Sasahara (ART Junior Team) held the lead when the red flag came out in response to Darius Oskoui’s (ART Junior Team) on-track stoppage. No sooner did qualifying resume than it came to a halt again as the cars of Jack Aitken and Valentin Hasse-Clot (Fortec Motorsports) were cleared from the track. Conditions belatedly improved as the chequered flag neared, however, with Ben Barnicoat snatching pole with a lap of 1:54.432 from Louis Delétraz and Simon Gachet at the end of a stop-start session brought to a premature conclusion when Max Defourny (ART Junior Team) came to a halt.
