Photo: ETCR

Mattias Ekström grabs Pool Fast ETCR pole at Hungaroring

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Cupra’s Mattias Ekström comfortably topped both Pool Fast qualifying sessions to take pole position for the ETCR quarter finals at the Hungaroring.

The reigning PURE ETCR champion’s best lap-time of a 1:53.442 came in the first segment as the six drivers contesting the two-part session found that track conditions produced more grip early on

Running in 10-second intervals on full “Beast” mode, which gives all drivers 500kW of available power for their one lap per session, Hyundai Motorsport’s Kevin Ceccon was the first to set a lap and the Italian managed a time of 1:54.905, good enough for fourth in the session.

He was immediately beaten by compatriot and Romeo Ferraris driver Giovanni Venturini, who finished 1.435s adrift of Ekström at the end of Q1.

Venturini’s team-mate Maxime Martin finished the session fifth, following a huge lock-up at the start of his run at the first corner. Martin ran deep into the run-off on the exit, eventually coming home over two seconds shy of Ekström’s best.

The closest challenger to Ekström in Q1 was Hyundai’s Mikel Azcona, who ended up just under seven-tenths back from his former Cupra team-mate.

With Q2 running in reverse order of Q1 results, Ekström’s Cupra colleague Jordie Gené was first out on track, but he will start from the back after receiving a track limits strike for running too wide at turn 11.

Much like his team-mate in Q1, Venturini suffered an extended lock-up in his Romeo Ferraris at turn two but was still able to set the fourth quickest time, two-tenths ahead of Martin and only seven-hundredths adrift of Azcona’s Hyundai.

Ceccon was second quickest, a fraction over two-tenths down on Ekström, who admitted after his lap of 1:54.010 that he had been able to get the most out of his second effort.

“I couldn’t repeat the first lap, but I am happy with the lap,” Ekström said.

“There’s still some racing left but it’s always good to start the weekend in the right way.”

Cupra team principal Xavier Serra added: “We lost a couple of tenths in the first sector so that meant that the lap was a bit slower.”

In combined qualifying, Ekström leads the way, with Azcona and Ceccon joining him in quarter fina one, while Venturini, Martin and Gené will duke it out in quarter final two.

The Pool Furious qualifying session takes place later on today at 12:25 CEST.