With pre-season testing in the rear view mirror, the 16 eVirtual teams have returned to the Calder Park Thunderdome for Round 1 of the championship. After setting up the garages and completing an untimed Friday practice session, the teams returned on Saturday for the first qualifying session of the year. Q1First out on the track were the 4 debuting teams this season, joined by the Lamborghini and Thunderhead outfits that had finished at the bottom of last year’s standings. With only 6 drivers being able to progress to the race, competition was fierce yet times were slow this year, as teams struggled with colder than usual temperatues. After posting very impressive times in testing, Hyundai continued to fly high, with Nick Addison comfortably fastest to book his place in Q2. Unfortunately his less-experienced teammate could not match his pace, with Raatikainen making a big error and finding himself all the way down in 10th and out of qualifying. Opel caught the eye with a solid 2nd and 3rd on debut, while Drake Davies continued to impress by placing the Thunderhead Toyota in 4th. Claiming the last two spots in Q2 was Icelandic privateers GP1, with Oliversson just shading the more experienced Stefánsson. Further down it was a bad day to be Italian, as both Lamborghini and Maserati suffered double DNQ’s, although Romano Agostino came close to beating the GP1 duo. Diego Campos struggled for pace in the sister car, only placing ahead of Thunderhead’s wildcard pick Izaya Yuki, who struggled to get to grips with his car throughout the session. Q2With the bottom 6 eliminated from the weekend and 2 teams packing their bags already, attention turned to the top of the table as the remaining drivers took to the track to decide positions 11-26. Porsche continued their strong form on ovals, with Manziel taking a 1-2 led by last year's Calder Park winner Dominykas Zvironas. From there, a small gap emerged to the battling pack led by Jaguar’s Maximilian Thunström. Looking further down the grid there was a shock, as the other Jaguar driven by 2022 runner-up Jochem van Snelheid could only manage 16th, leaving one of the potential frontrunners for the championship mired in the mid-pack. Large gaps between teammates were common in this session, as teams struggled to land on the right set-up. Lada were the only other team to get both drivers into Q3, with eV2 graduate Urmo Kruuda sneaking into the last spot. Other surprises came from GP1’s Robert Stefánsson, who set a massive improvement on his Q1 time to place the new team straight into Q3. Also impressing was BMW’s Kip Maxwell with a strong 4th place, outperforming his old Downton team. At the other end of the spectrum, it was a nightmare qualifying for Maxwell’s German teammate Niklaus Hölzberg who suffered technical gremlins and was unable to set a quick time. K8ley and Renault were both left disappointed after an underwhelming qualifying session saw both their drivers towards the rear of the grid and both Vocquelin and Addison also unable to recapture their pace from Q1, with Vocquelin in particular being upstaged by his new teammate Cosmo Roberts. Arrow came close to Q3 but couldn’t quite make the cut, but with the lineup for Q3 set there were still 8 teams in with a chance of pole position. Q3With 10 drivers from 8 teams remaining the shootout for pole began with disappointment for GP1. After turning heads in Q2, Stefánsson made a mistake on his 3rd lap which dropped him to 10th and last in the session. Still, the rookie team is having a great debut weekend, and 10th place is an impressive result. Less impressed were the two Swedes, as Thunström and Östberg both fell down the rankings to 7th and 9th. Splitting the two was rookie Urmo Kruuda, sticking close to his veteran teammate Hudson who qualified 6th. Moving into the business end of the qualifying order it was disappointment for Manziel’s Dominykas Zvironas, who tumbled down the rankings to 5th, leaving him work to do to repeat last year's winning performance. But there was still one more Manziel car left in the session and incredibly Steven Kasami was back at the top of the table, staking his claim for back-to-back Calder Park poles in his customer Porsche. The big names Downton and Mathershaw both were at the top as expected, setting fast lap times. But they weren’t fast enough to match Kasami’s pace, settling for 3rd and 4th on the grid. Suddenly this left only 2 drivers in the hunt for pole, with last year's polesitter Steven Kasami being challenged by new BMW driver Kip Maxwell in what was quickly becoming the comeback story of the day. BMW have never even scored points on an oval before, and were not always making it out of Q1 last year but in the steady hands of Kip Maxwell they were looking for their 2nd ever pole position. Sadly however, it was not to be. On debut with Manziel, Steven Kasami took 1st place on the grid for the 2nd year in a row at Calder Park. He will be looking for a much better showing then last year where he fell to an eventual 20th, but he will have a competitive pack of drivers challenging him for the Australian eV-Prix. Final Qualifying Classification
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