Valentino Catalano (17/Westheim, DKR Engineering) secured pole position in the second qualifying session of the Prototype Cup Germany at the Norisring. The 17-year-old’s time of 0:48.493 minutes was the fastest of the whole weekend so far at the street circuit in Nuremberg. Xavier Lloveras (23/ESP), Julien Apothéloz (22/CHE, both van ommen racing by DataLab), Gary Hauser (31/LUX, Racing Experience) and Nico Göhler (20/Grasleben, BWT Mücke Motorsport) completed the top five.
“I love the Norisring. The hard braking zones are perfectly suited to my style of driving,” said a jubilant Valentino Catalano after the second qualifying. “I felt very comfortable in the car and gave it everything. I even made light contact with the wall at one point.” Catalano was 0.13 seconds faster than Laurents Hörr (25/Gerlingen, Koiranen Kemppi Motorsport) was in yesterday’s opening qualifying session. “Laurents’ lap time was excellent, but I obviously wanted to be faster,” said the DKR driver, who was understandably happy to have achieved his goal.
Rival Gary Hauser took his hat off to Catalano’s performance: “Valentino drove a very good lap. I don’t know whether I could have achieved that time.” The driver from Luxembourg qualified fourth, but believes he could have done better with a clear track. “I constantly ran into a rival, but was never able to get past him. Even when I left space between us, I had usually caught up with him again by the end of the lap. That prevented me from finding a good rhythm, even though I did have the odd free lap.” It was a similar story for Nico Göhler, who found himself in fifth place behind Hauser. “I was in the same group as Gary and was also unable to find my rhythm. That was a shame, because there was more in it for me here than fifth place.”
Ahead of Hauser and Göhler were two drivers from the van omen by DataLab team: Xavier Lloveras and Julian Apothéloz. “It was a good qualifying, I am happy with the car and myself,” said second-placed Spaniard Lloveras calmly. His Swiss team-mate was also satisfied with his result. “We desperately need to score points at the Norisring, having twice failed to finish in Zandvoort. I hope we make it through both races this weekend.”
Race seven of this season’s Prototype Cup Germany gets underway at 16:35 on Saturday afternoon.
