Jenzer Motorsport's Fabio Leimer consolidated his qualifying status today by claiming his second pole position of the 2009 International Formula Master (IFM) season in Valencia, Spain.
The Pau pole setter repeated the feat today with a best lap of 1:27.455, claiming the fastest qualifying time of the weekend, ahead of JD Motorsport duo Sergey Afanasiev and Josef Kral.
Afanasiev was the only other driver to produce a lap with 1:27s, posting a fastest time of 1:27.756. Team-mate Kral will start this afternoon's race in third place after completing his best lap in 1:28.039.
Hitech Junior's Kasper Andersen produced the best qualifying lap for the team to date with a 1:28.059, good enough for fourth place, whilst JD Motorsport's Vladimir Arabadzhiev claimed a P5 starting position despite posting leading times earlier in the session.
Hitech Junior's Alexander Rossi and ADM Motorsport's Earl Bamber qualified within one thousandth of a second of each other; with Rossi setting the faster lap in 1:28.573 ahead of Bamber's 1:28.574.
Cram Competition's Alessandro Kouzkin and Jenzer Motorsport's Pal Varhaug also traded close times with Kouzkin qualifying ahead of Varhaug with respective laps of 1:28.654 and 1:28.659.
Eurosport's coverage for IFM's race weekend in Valencia will begin today with race one shown live from 11:00 (GMT) on Eurosport 2 and Asia Pacific. Sunday's race two will also be broadcast live, on Eurosport International and Asia Pacific, from 08:00 (GMT).Fabio Leimer, Jenzer Motorsport"Starting from pole is great obviously but I could have been faster easily; it was a good lap but it wasn't perfect and the yellow flag near the end of the session meant that I had one lap to set my fastest time rather than three.
"In the end it was ok though and I start the race from the best place!"
Sergey Afanasiev, JD Motorsport"I'm sure it was the same for everyone, the yellow flags at the end of the session arrived just when we were in the best position to post fast laps but P2 for this afternoon is ok and our race pace is pretty good so let's see what we can do against Fabio [Leimer]!"
Josef Kral, JD Motorsport"After being slower than Fabio during yesterday's free practice, we found a great set up for today and I could really have gone faster. I think we were faster than him in the third sector but he was really good in the first part of the lap. Anyway, at least I start from the clean side which should help during the race."
International Formula Master - ValenciaQualifying (Round 03)1. Fabio Leimer (SUI), Jenzer Motorsport (#6), 1:27.4552. Sergey Afanasiev (RUS), JD Motorsport (#2), 1:27.7563. Josef Kral (CZH), JD Motorsport (#3), 1:28.0394. Kasper Andersen (DEN), Hitech Junior (#24), 1:28.0595. Vladimir Arabadzhiev (BUL), JD Motorsport (#1), 1:28.1566. Alexander Rossi (USA), Hitech Junior (#16), 1:28.5737. Earl Bamber (NZL), ADM Motorsport (#14), 1:28.5748. Alessandro Kouzkin (RUS), Cram Competition (#47), 1:28.654 9. Pål Varhaug (NOR), Jenzer Motorsport (#7), 1:28.65910. Simon Trummer (SUI), Iris Project (#8), 1:28.66811. Patrick Reiterer (ITA), Iris Project (#9), 1:29.07512. Frankie Provenzano (ITA), Cram Competition (#5), 1:29.11113. Harald Schlegelmilch (LAT), ADM Motorsport (#10), 1:29.23314. Nicolas Maulini (SUI), Jenzer Motorsport (#26), 1:29.55815. Dennis Retera (NED), AR Motorsport (#32), 1:29.65916. Kelvin Snoeks (NED), AR Motorsport (#31), 1:30.027
Weather/Track: Sun 22° / Dry 37°
