Valentino Catalano came out on top in qualifying for the second Prototype Cup Germany race and secured his fourth pole position of the 2023 season. Spectacular session with little to separate the top drivers.
Qualifying for Sunday’s race in the Prototype Cup Germany at TT Circuit Assen was a really exciting affair. The lead changed hands repeatedly, right down to the end of the session. Eventually, it was Valentino Catalano (17/Westheim) in a Duqueine D08 who came out on top with a time of 1:30.494 minutes. This is the DKR Engineering driver’s fourth pole position of the 2023 season.
“I am delighted. The lap was relatively solid, and could actually even have been a bit better, as I hit traffic on my fastest lap,” said a beaming Catalano, who shares the cockpit with Robin Rogalski (23/POL). “The car was superb again. I felt very comfortable. And I really like the circuit here in Assen.”
Fellow Duqueine driver Jacob Erlbacher (23/Böblingen), who starts alongside Courtney Crone (22/USA), took second place, just 0.233 seconds off the pole time. That represents the best qualifying result to date for his team, Gebhardt Motorsport, in the Prototype Cup Germany. Third place went to the Duqueine of the pair currently placed second in the table, Oscar Tunjo (27/COL) and Julien Apothéloz (22/CHE, both Van Ommen Racing by DataLab), who ended the session 0.253 seconds behind pole-sitter Catalano.
Championship leaders Gary Hauser (31/LUX) and Markus Pommer (32/Untereisesheim, both Racing Experience) were fourth in their Duqueine, 0.365 seconds off the leading time. Rounding out the top five were another Duqueine duo, Gustavo Kyrila (29/BRA) and Nico Göhler (20/Grasleben, both BWT Mücke Motorsport).
Sunday’s race in the Prototype Cup Germany at TT Circuit Assen starts at 13:45 and will be streamed live and free of charge at youtube.com/adacmotorsports. “We definitely want to win the race. I will try to get off to a good start and open a lead, so that my team-mate Robin will hopefully have a comfortable race,” said pole-sitter Catalano, looking ahead to the race.
