Round 5 of the eVirtual World Championship brings us to a cold and cloudy Donington Park. With 4 teams taking wins in the first 4 rounds and a further 3 taking pole positions, will we see more unpredictability at the top in Britain or can one of the title contenders return to the front? Q1After a disappointing Japan 300, K8ley have found themselves relegated to the curtain opener Q1 session and fighting for their places on the grid. But any fears of non-qualification were soon put to rest as Christodoulou led Brzyski to a 1-2 finish. Following behind were Opel’s Cosmo Roberts and Hyundai’s Nick Addison, maintaining their 100% records in Q1. Opel were happy to see both their cars progressing through Q1 as Vocquelin shook off his prior poor performances to pick up 5th, ahead of Maserati’s Gianluca di Stefano. Lamborghini came close but were still left with a double DNQ, while Thunderhead were unable to maintain their momentum after their success in Japan. A driver who was left visibly frustrated was Maserati’s Gabriele Garcia, left shaking his head after finding himself 1.5 seconds behind his teammate, while J-P Raatikainen was also searching for answers after he could not match up to his teammate’s pace. Q2As the remainder of the cars took to the track for Q2, the cold conditions were proving to be the great equaliser. In one of the most open sessions of the season so far, no team were able to get more than one driver into the final Q3 session. A team that found itself knocked out entirely were championship leaders Jaguar, who found themselves mired solidly in the midfield after a difficult session. Their difficulties were nothing compared to last race’s winners Bentley, who were even further down the grid in 22nd and 26th. When the dust settled it was Renault who found themselves in 1st place, with Aron Einarsson putting Renault at the head of the field. Following closely behind was Q1 entrant Nick Addison, who managed to find a stunning 1.3 seconds extra pace on his previous lap time to put his Hyundai into a strong position ahead of Q3. He wasn’t the only driver from Q1 to make it through, as perhaps the earlier running had given these drivers crucial knowledge of the conditions. Roberts and Brzyski were both inside the top 10, although Christodoulou will have been disappointed to miss out in 13th. Some of the more usual suspects were in the middle of the top 10, keeping their names in the hat for the final session. Zozulya, Kasami and Barclay were all pleased to survive the chaos while other strong title contenders like Thunström and Yoshida fell by the wayside. Completing the Q3 field would be Erik Oliversson, Urmo Kruuda, and (by the finest of margins) Niklaus Hölzberg. With such a variety of teams in Q3, it remained anyone’s guess as to who would take pole position. Q3One driver who would not be taking pole position for a second time this season is Steven Kasami. The Swiss driver made an error on his fast lap, putting him 6 tenths down on his Q2 time and in 10th place on the grid. Another driver who found themselves dropping time was Cosmo Roberts, with his run of 3rd places coming to an end as he slipped to 9th. A Q1 entrant who was a bit happier with his grid position was Hyundai’s Nick Addison, who found himself all the way up in 6th leading Oliversson and Kruuda. It nearly could have been a top 5 for the debutant team, but a last gasp effort from Jules Barclay put the Canadian into 5th place just ahead of Addison. As the session progressed, the fight for pole was developing into a 4 way fight between Brzyski, Einarsson, Hölzberg and Zozulya. Only Zozulya could remotely be described as a title challenger at this stage, but it was Zozulya who found himself slowest of the group, just behind Niklaus Hölzberg. All eyes were on the K8ley of Leo Brzyski, as the Pole was on track to improve his Q2 time by over half a second. But at the end of the day, it wasn’t enough. The pace of Aron Einarsson’s Renault was too much to handle, with the Icelandic taking the 3rd pole position of his career. With a completely jumbled grid order, we will find out tomorrow if anyone can spring a surprise and make it 5 different winners from 5 races in the British eV-Prix. Final Classification
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