Donar Munding secured pole position for race one of the Prototype Cup Germany, setting the fastest qualifying time for the second time this season. Axcil Jefferies was second behind the young German, with Oscar Tunjo third at the 4.574-kilometre Hockenheimring Baden-Württemberg.
Donar Munding’s (20/Stuttgart, Mühlner Motorsport) preparations were by no means perfect, as Thursday’s test offered the youngster from Stuttgart barely any chance to prepare for driving on a dry track. After various interruptions, he only managed to get one flying lap under his belt at the test. “As such, it was very much a case of ‘in at the deep end’, as both free practice sessions took place in wet conditions, making it impossible to prepare for a dry qualifying again today.” Nevertheless, the 20-year-old kept calm and carried on. “I wanted pole position and knew that I would have to push myself to the limit if I was going to get it.” However, having realised that he was yet to post a fast lap, and with the clock ticking, he first opted for a steadier lap. Munding then went on the attack again and climbed to the top of the timing sheet. “My car was really good and my team-mate Mathias Lüthen are now a well-coordinated team,” he says, looking ahead optimistically to tomorrow afternoon’s race, in which Munding could take a step closer to winning the Junior competition and Lüthen (41/Hamburg, Mühlner Motorsport) hopes to close in on the title in the Trophy competition.
Axcil Jefferies (28/ZWE, Konrad Motorsport) took second place behind Munding, with Oscar Tunjo (26/COL, Rinaldi Racing) securing third place on the grid. Around the midway point of qualifying, when the session was briefly red-flagged due to an incident involving Torsten Kratz (51/Mönchengladbach, WTM Racing), the Columbian was leading the way. However, he was eventually unable to hang on to first place. Rory Penttinen (42/FIN, MRS GT-Racing) did a remarkable job, earning fourth place for his team on their debut in LMP3 racing. Kratz, Berkay Besler (23/TUR, Toksport WRT), Moritz Löhner (23/Munich, Reiter Engineering), Julien Schell (43/FRA, Pegasus Racing), Sebastian von Gartzen (29/Butzbach, Racing Experience) and Dany Soufi (19/USA, Konrad Motorsport) completed the top ten.
