5 septembre 2015
Pieter Schothorst and Niccolò Nalio reverse the trend at Silverstone
The grip exerted by Steijn Schothorst (Equipe Verschuur) and Richard Gonda (ART Junior Team) on Renault Sport Trophy qualifying this season was finally loosened at Silverstone on Saturday, when Niccolò Nalio (Oregon Team) registered his first pole in the competition to book first place on the grid for the Prestige Sprint and Endurance races. Nalio will start Saturday afternoon’s Endurance race before handing over to Luciano Bacheta (Oregon Team #6). The duo will head the grid from Endurance points leaders Capitanio-Fumanelli (Oregon Team #8), and Forné-Dontje (ART Junior Team #14). Dominant in Elite qualifying, Dutch driver Pieter Schothorst (Equipe Verschuur) will start in pole for Sunday’s Sprint race ahead of Paul-Loup Chatin (Monlau Competicion) and brother and standings leader Steijn Schothorst (Equipe Verschuur).
Prestige
The first into action, the Prestige drivers had the dual task of qualifying for the Endurance and Sprint races. Stefano Costantini (V8 Racing) and Niccolò Nalio swapped the lead before seeing Richard Gonda and Antonio Coimbra (Equipe Verschuur) suffer off-track excursions. When the red flag went down Niccolò Nalio improved on his time before Dario Capitanio snuck ahead of him on his final lap. Undeterred, Nalio hit back with a time of 1:56.538 to claim pole position from Dario Capitanio, Toni Forné, Stefano Costantini and Max Braams (V8 Racing). Points leader Diederik Sijthoff will start in eighth, five places ahead of his closest rival Richard Gonda.
Elite
Roy Geerts (V8 Racing) and Bas Schothorst (Zele Racing) were the first drivers to show in the Elite category, but were both eclipsed by Pieter Schothorst. The Dutchman eventually took the benchmark time down to 1:55.088 to come out on top from Paul-Loup Chatin, Steijn Schothorst, David Fumanelli (Oregon Team) and Luciano Bacheta (Oregon Team).
Saturday’s Endurance race begins at 15:10, with tomorrow’s Elite Sprint race getting under way at 11:25 and the Prestige Sprint at 15:30.
