The penultimate round of the season and the final triple crown event to boot - welcome to qualifying around the legendary Laguna Seca raceway. With 85 points still up for grabs across the next two races, the title fight is as tight as a monkey's bottom - with Taylor leading Zozulya by 1 point, while McLaughlin and Cesar remain in contention. A good qualifying for any of them will pay dividends, but that's easier said than done: especially when it's pouring rain out here. Q1The conditions were treacherous, and that became clear when Agostino spun on his outlap at turn 3. Both him and teammate Ledesma struggled hugely in the wet - both ended up slowest by a long way. Bruner actually began to go close to racing driver levels of speed, but felt he was a touch too conservative and finished 7th. The big shock came in between him and Ledesma - Domenicalli struggled on his first lap, before aquaplanning off at the rainey curve, meaning he will start 28th tomorrow. As it is a triple crown event, the above 4 will start the race but the rest got the chance to compete in Q2. Leading the way was Matthews, looking strong in the wet, but BMW saw a much improved showing over the last few races - Haugland 2nd and Holzberg sneaking through in 6th. Kasami was happy with 3rd, Garcia got through once again in 4th and Stokey made amends for the last race by also placing in the top 6, in 5th. Q2The rain intensified for Q2, and while there were no crashes, plenty of drivers had off track moments and spins, resulting in a very mixed up session. Fusion came to the fore yet again in the wet, Thunder going fastest by mere hundredths with Zvironas in 3rd, less than a tenth behind. In between them, Taylor delivered in what could end up being a crucial title moment, weathering the storm to finish 2nd and make it into Q3. Hutchinson on the other hand did his absolute best not to help his teammate by qualifying 26th. What of Zozulya? When he needs a top performance, the Ukranian faultered - he looked edgy on all his laps and finished 20th, a massive blow with Taylor up so high. It was a shocker for Downton overall, as Maxwell only managed 14th, meaning Downton's lead in the standings may be under threat. McLaughlin fared little better, managing only 13th, though 19th was slightly above average for Nakumaya. Maserati were on form though - Yoshida looked happy in the rain as he finished 5th. Cesar was less comfortable in 8th, but making Q3 was important for him and he did so. Porsche were unfortunately back to being stuck in the midfield, Vocquelin and Bergkvist 16th and 17th. There were mixed feelings at Highwind and Lada: Klien did well for 4th, and Ostberg showed his wet weather form once again with 7th. However, Ellington just missed out on Q3 in 11th and Hudson's slim title chances were almost totally extinguished when he spun to 22nd. It was another poor performance for Davies after qualifying 23rd, but Einarsson drove very well, keeping his car on track to end up 6th. It was a similar story for Arrow where Zhao was 24th but van Snelheid was for the umpteeth time through to Q3 in 9th. Matthews couldn't do the same but 12th was still a great effort, especially with Stokey in 18th. Flying the K8ley flag on his own, Kasami was disappointed with 21st, though not as much as Holzberg who finished 25th, unable to extract any extra pace from his car. On the other hand, Haugland drove very well to snag 15th and put her in the frame for a points finish. The most impressive performance though came in the form of another giant-killing lap from Garcia, who managed to sneak into Q3 in 10th as he forgot he drove a Thunderhead. Q3Up until now, drivers had the opportunity to take it easy on their opening laps before gradually building up their confidence and pace. In Q3, that was out of the window - an one lap shootout in the wet meant being the fastest up until now meant nought if you didn't nail this last lap.
Unfortunately, Thunder found this out the hard way. Going out first, full of confidence, she went wide at turn 2, and nearly spun at turn 6. She was annoyed at her lap and it was clear why when next man out Klien also made a mistake, but still finished 8 tenths quicker. Van Snelheid went out next, and put in the first proper lap of the session. Over a second up on Klien, he stuck his Arrow on provisional pole. With McLaughlin at least a couple of places back and Zozulya in another galaxy, Taylor decided to play it safe. His lap was some 8 tenths slower than van Snelheid, though still quicker with Klien. Maserati sent out Yoshida first, and despite a poor first sector, the Japanese driver pulled his lap back and went fastest in the last two, ending up 3 tenths shy of van Snelheid to end a good day for him. His teammate Cesar meanwhile decided against Taylor's approach, smashing the first sector and storming through the second as well. He was on course to take provisional pole - until he went slightly wide at the penultimate turn, dipped two wheels off the track on the exit and had a dramatic half spin that he somehow saved. The last corner came up fast which saved him some time but he finished his lap a tenth behind Klien. Einarsson tried his hand next, and everyone sat up when he matched Cesar's early pace. He kept the pace up through the middle sector - with some incredibke commitment through the corkscrew - and nailed turn 10 to fly across the line: 7 tenths up on van Snelheid and much quicker than everyone else. Garcia's lap was nowhere as close as stunning, but he did beat Thunder to give him hope of finally scoring his first eV points. Zvironas was the second last driver out, and perhaps mindful of Thunder's struggles, he pushed hard but not too the absolute limit. He was quick enough to split van Snelheid and Yoshida, but felt there was more pace, though also expressed optimism on fight for the win tomorrow. Ostberg was the last man out, nearly binning it at turn 2 on his out lap. He out in a great recovery from there, keeping it clean through the first half of the lap before a strong run through the final few corners saw him pip van Snelheid to the front row. There was no stopping Einarsson though, who took a well deserved maidin pole position. With a mixed up grid once again, plenty of drivers are in the mix for their maiden victory, especially the top 3. For Taylor, bagging points will be the name of the game, while Cesar will look to make up for today by going for the win. McLaughlin needs a couple of overtakes and Zozulya needs a ton of those: but after a crazy day today, who knows what will happen tomorrow? With 51 points on the line, it's all to play for.
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