15.05.2004 While Jordi Gené claims a first ETCC pole position for SEAT, AS Alfa Romeo struggle around the ultra-fast German track: qualifying report & times from Hockenheim

Augusto Farfus during qualifying at HockenheimSEAT claimed its first pole position since it joined the FIA ETCC. In today’s qualifying session, SEAT Sport’s Jordi Gené confirmed his impressive pace in the second practice, clocking the fastest time at 1:48.669, and ousting his fellow Spaniard Antonio García from provisional pole.

This result crowned SEAT’s consistent improvement over the latest race meetings, and was also the first pole position for Gené.

That the Toledo Cupra cars had great ambitions in Hockenheim, was clearly shown by Frank Diefenbacher’s first qualifying lap, with a time of 1:49.024 the young German driver set a provisional pole position five minutes into the session.

A few seconds later his team-mate Gené clocked a 1:49.350, which was good enough to move him up to second. A number of drivers managed to go under the 1:50 mark, with Fabrizio Giovanardi provisionally claiming third position with a lap in 1:49.523.

As the first third of the session went by, Andy Priaulx shook up the classification, claiming a provisional pole with a lap in 1:48.828, the first driver to break the 1:49 barrier. Diefenbacher responded quickly, improving his time to 1:48.938; however he did not improve his second position behind the BMW Team Great Britain driver. Giovanardi was the third driver to lap in the 1:48s, moving back up to third again with a lap in 1:48.843.

Then, with only six minutes left in the session, BMW Team Italy-Spain’s Antonio García was clocked at 1:48.826, beating Priaulx by only two thousandths of a second. His joy for the pole was very short, as one minute later Gené stole the pole from him for good. Again, the session was incredibly close, 15 cars qualified in the same second, with Oregon Team’s Luca Rangoni 11th and fastest of the independents with a 1:49.532. Jan Magnussen’s Peugeot placed 19th, but only 1.5 seconds from the top.

After the session, the Stewards disallowed the 16th fastest time of 1:49.854 set by Alessandro Balzan in his JAS Motorsport Honda Accord, because he failed to stop at the weighing scales. The Italian driver will fill the last-but-one spot of the grid for tomorrow’s race one, having only Rickard Rydell behind. The Swede took part in the session knowing that his times would have been cancelled, due to the engine change occurred on his car after Magny-Cours.
FIA European Touring Car Championship Rd 7 & 8 Hockenheim: Qualifying
POS NO CL DRIVER NAT CAR TIME LAPS GAP KM/H
 1   9      Jordi GENE   ESP   SEAT Toledo Cupra   1:48.669   10       151.52  
 2   5      Antonio GARCIA   ESP   BMW 320i   1:48.826   12   0.157    151.30  
 3   11      Andy PRIAULX   GBR   BMW 320i   1:48.828   7   0.159    151.30  
 4   2      Fabrizio GIOVANARDI   ITA   Alfa Romeo 156   1:48.843   12   0.174    151.28  
 5   10      Frank DIEFENBACHER   GER   SEAT Toledo Cupra   1:48.938   10   0.269    151.15  
 6   43      Dirk MULLER   GER   BMW 320i   1:48.977   13   0.308    151.10  
 7   3      Augusto FARFUS JR.   BRA   Alfa Romeo 156   1:49.000   11   0.331    151.06  
 8   1      Gabriele TARQUINI   ITA   Alfa Romeo 156   1:49.028   12   0.359    151.02  
 9   12      Kurt MOLLEKENS   BEL   BMW 320i   1:49.050   11   0.381    150.99  
 10   42      Jorg MULLER   GER   BMW 320i   1:49.259   11   0.590    150.71  
 11   46   I   Luca RANGONI   ITA   Alfa Romeo 156 GTA  1:49.532   13   0.863    150.33  
 12   45   I   Michele BARTYAN   AUT   Alfa Romeo 156 GTA  1:49.562   13   0.893    150.29  
 13   8      Rickard RYDELL   SWE   SEAT Toledo Cupra   1:49.640   4   0.971    150.18  
 14   44   I   Salvatore TAVANO   ITA   Alfa Romeo 156 GTA  1:49.698   11   1.029    150.10  
 15   20   I   Tom CORONEL   NED   BMW 320i   1:49.745   11   1.076    150.04  
 16   4      Alessandro ZANARDI   ITA   BMW 320i   1:50.025   9   1.356    149.66  
 17   27   I   Carl ROSENBLAD   SWE   BMW 320i   1:50.175   12   1.506    149.45  
 18   23      Jan MAGNUSSEN   DEN   Peugeot 307 Gti   1:50.196   7   1.527    149.42  
 19   25   I   Stefano D'ASTE   ITA   BMW 320i   1:50.590   11   1.921    148.89  
 20   19   I   Roland ASCH   GER   Ford Focus ST170   1:50.623   12   1.954    148.85  
 21   16   I   Simon HARRISON   GBR   Honda Civic Type-R   1:51.110   13   2.441    148.19  
 22   18   I   Sebastian GRUNERT   GER   Ford Focus ST170   1:51.397   9   2.728    147.81  
 23   17   I   Toni RUOKONEN   FIN   Honda Civic Type-R   1:51.713   13   3.044    147.39