The Qualifying Session for the Italian round of the Blancpain Sprint Series produced some exciting action, with Norbert Siedler in the #333 Rinaldi Racing Ferrari eventually taking his first Sprint pole of the season. The Austrian's 1'32.774 was only marginally slower than the pole time of the Misano MotoGP, set a couple of weeks ago. Siedler beat Craig Dolby in the #173 Always Evolving Nissan by three tenths of a second, but for the Englishman it was still his best qualifying result as well.
The second row of the grid for tonight's Qualifying Race will be made up by the #3 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT machine of Stéphane Richelmi and the #84 Bentley Team HTP Continental of Vincent Abril, making it four different brands in the top-4.
Jeroen Mul proved to be the quickest of the newcomers at the wheel of the #19 Grasser Lamborghini, setting the eighth time overall and also taking the pole in the Silver Cup. Pole in the Pro-Am Cup went to Marko Asmer in the #71 GT Russian Mercedes.
Disappointment meanwhile for Series leaders Robin Frijns and Laurens Vanthoor, who did not manage to get into Q3, and will have to start the Qualifying Race from twelfth, their worst qualifying result of the season.
The Qualifying Race at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli will be a night race, with a 20.45 start.
Norbert Siedler (#333 Rinaldi Racing Ferrari): 'In my first try I made a mistake, so I knew I could go quicker. In my final effort everything fell into place. This promises a lot for the races, but it's Sunday's result that is the most important.'
Jeroen Mul (#19 Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini, 1st Silver Cup): 'Maybe we performed a bit under the expectations, but we are still learning a lot. I think this is the best we can do with the car at the moment. We will try to gather some more data during tonight's race and try to improve tomorrow.'
Marko Asmer (#70 GT Russian Mercedes, 1st Pro-Am Cup): 'There was a slight confusion between the car and the crew and that meant that we could not get everything out of the car. It surely can go quicker than this. We will see if we can prove that during the race.'