David Schumacher (22/Salzburg, US Racing) secured pole position in the second qualifying session in the Prototype Cup Germany. In doing so, he followed in the footsteps of his father Ralf (49/Salzburg, US Racing), who went fastest in the opening qualifying as he made an impressive return to racing. David Schumacher went 0.419 seconds faster than Felipe Laser (36/Leipzig, Frikadelli Racing Team), who took second place at the Nürburgring. Third place went to (16/UAE, Mühlner Motorsport).
“It was a really positive qualifying. It could hardly have gone much better,” said David Schumacher. Not only was my result good, but also the advantage I had. Much of that is obviously down to our team US Racing, who did a top job of preparing the Ligier – thank you for that.” At times during qualifying, Schumacher held a lead of roughly 0.7 seconds and pulled into the pit lane with three minutes of the session still remaining. “I wanted to look after the tyres and, thanks to my lead, was able to risk coming in. I am now excited to see what happens in the two races.”
Laser was Schumacher’s closest rival in qualifying. “I take my hat off to David, Ralf and the US Racing team. However, I am happy with my performance and looking forward to the two races. We are on good form, as my team-mate Klaus Abbelen also showed in yesterday’s qualifying. We have actually already achieved our goals and desires for the season with the victory in Hockenheim, but we are still hungry and now want to end the season in the top three of the overall standings. With that in mind, it is important for us to score as many points as possible in the two races here at the Nürburgring.”
Al Azhari repeated his third place from the first qualifying session. “That was not my best qualifying, but third place is still a good starting position for the race. I had a few issues getting a clear lap, as I did not want to get in the way of any of my opponents.” Markus Pommer (33/Untereisesheim, Gebhardt Motorsport) had to settle for fourth place, just behind Al Azhair. He was followed by Riccardo Leone Cirelli (16/ITA, BWT Mücke Motorsport), Antti Rammo (41/EST, MRS GT-Racing), Suellio Almeida (30/BRA, DataLab Sports with Rinaldi) and Jacob Erlbacher (23/Böblingen, Gebhardt Motorsport).
Race one of the Prototype Cup Germany at the Nürburgring starts at 17:20 on Saturday, when Ralf and David Schumacher start from the front of the grid, alongside Cirelli / Julien Apothéloz (23/CHE, BWT Mücke Motorsport).
