After a week's gap following the triple crown event at Monaco, eV is back as we roll onto the British eV-Prix here from Donington Park. And to add to the excitement, today marked the first wet session of the season, as rain joined us today for qualifying Q1Now down to 10 contenders following Nakley's departure, Q1 also saw an overhaul as K8ley escaped, in turn dropping Arrow into the session. Given their pace for most of the season, it was no surprise to see van Snelheid top the times. Heads did turn however as Haugland pumped in good lap times to take 2nd, ahead of Garcia who looked more comfortable than usual in his Thunderhead. OSM didn't quite have the same pace as in Monaco, but Stokey was still able to qualify relatively easily in 4th, Matthews also qualifying with 6th. They were split by Ledesma who was well ahead of his teammate this weekend - Agostino laungished in 9th and was knocked out, as was Bruner expectedly in 8th. The other two Q1 casualties were surprises though, as Holzberg was unusually off colour, only managing 7th, while the best Zhao could do for Arrow was dead last. Q2With the wet weather, there were some big gaps between teammates. Only Maserati and Downton got both cars through to Q3, both relatively comfortably with Cesar in 3rd and Zozulya in 6th, Maxwell and Yoshida in the middle as they were all split by about 7 tenths. Cesar very nearly got 2nd until he was pipped by an impressive Einarsson, but none could match Zvironas who was on fire - the Fusion driver was fastest by over 7 tenths. Behind Zozulya, Matthews put in another impressive quali lap to make it into Q3, followed by a couple of surprises. Ostberg had a complete turn around from his miserable qualifying form as he bagged 8th, plus a maiden Q3 appearance, while Garcia drove out of his skin in the wet to snatch 9th. Klien edged out Vocquelin - just - for 10th, beating the Frenchman by mere thousandths. Despite that, 14th for Bergkvist meant it was overall an improvement for Porsche. Davies wasn't matching Einarsson by a long stretch but 12th was a solid effort, ahead of van Snelheid who will be targetting points from thirteenth. Behind Bergkvist, Nakumaya was the lead Mitsubishi, which was scant consolation after an awful session for the team. Thunder starts alongside him, after ending up an embarrassing 3 seconds off her teammate's leading pace. K8ley had a quiet session with Domenicalli 17th and Kasami 19th, sandwiching Stokey who once again was unable to match Matthews when it came to Q2. Some big names were up next: Ellington had a shocker and spun on his way to 20th, ahead of McLaughlin who was all at sea, figuratively and literally. Jaguar were worryingly looking like genuine backmarkers this weekend, with Taylor and Hutchinson following. Haugland and Ledesma were the other Q1 advancers, down in 24th and 26th. They sandwiched Hudson, who on a rare occasion was totally outclassed by his teammate. Q3With one lap in the wet, plus plenty of drivers with a rare chance to prove themselves, Q3 was shaping up nicely. Yoshida took the first punt, and a 1:58 dead was looking good given the conditions seemed slightly worse than Q2. Klien was next, but some small slides around the lap saw him some 7 tenths down. Garcia was a further 5 tenths off when he went next, though he had thoroughly outperformed the car anyway by now.
Downton decided to roll out Zozulya first, and he matched Yoshida early on in the lap. However, he nearly slid off at the Adelaide hairpin and lost 6 tenths as he crossed the line. Cesar followed and showed how it was done as he beat his teammate by some 1.5 tenths, putting him on provisional pole - until the next run. Capping off an astonishing performance and staking a claim for the title of "rainmeister", Zvironas annhilated the competition as he went 1.5 seconds quicker than Cesar alone. No one looked close to being in the same magnitude. Maxwell, perhaps feeling the home pressure, made too many mistakes and was unable to beat Klien, while Einarsson was happy to beat Zozulya to an eventual 5th place. Matthews ended up 9th after beating Garcia but there was a surprise in store with the last lap as Ostberg drove on a ragged edge throughout his lap - it wasn't mistake free, but it was fast and he slid into the gap between the Maserati's in 3rd with a fine effort. But the day belongs to Zvironas, who was head and shoulders above his competitors, and with rain forecasted tomorrow, it's looking ominous. Do join us again tomorrow, for the next round in this exciting championship season.
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