The off-season is over. Pre-season testing has had its glory. Now it's time - after an action packed season last year which saw both title fights go down to the wire, it's time for the second ever eVirtual season to begin - with plenty of historic firsts. Racing around the Calder Park Thunderdome, the first oval weekend of the series will take place with the Australia eV-Prix, with the only other oval running being that one day of pre season testing. And, of course, today saw the first ever running of the dreaded Q1. Q1Last year's backmarkers Highwind and Thunderhead were set to run in this session - albeit with heavily improved line ups compared to their inaugural year. They were joined by BMW, who had a solid pre season in the hands of Holzberg, K8ley, who had a storming start to life in the series, OSM, with an all British line up of Matthews and Stokey, and Lamborgini, with fan favourites Agostino and Ledesma. With the bottom 6 teams competing, there was 6 spots up for grabs amongst 12 drivers. Lewis Ellington was first out, and smashed in a 4 lap average of 124.789 to throw down a hefty gauntlet. He was succeeded by Klien, who only managed a 123 dead, well off his teammate. Behind them, Domenicalli, Kasami and Garcia were next out - perhaps feeling confident after their strong performances around Indianapolis. The former and latter had respectable runs - both in the high 123s - but Kasami had a wobble on his 2nd lap, followed by a close call with the barrier of his 4th and ended up slowest of 4, putting pressure on him. The rest filtered out - Agostino and Ledesma found themselves on the wrong and right side of 123, respectively. Bruner was well over a mile per hour slower than his teammate, both OSMs had steady runs and Holzberg found himself slowest of all bar Kasami. Haugland faired little better, splitting the Lamborghini's. With the pressure on, Stokey was out for his second run first and couldn't improve - leaving him stranded on a 123.1 and all but knocked out. Haugland pipped him by the barest of margins but still with a speed unlikely to be good enough to qualify. Agostino couldn't improve which knocked him out, while Kasami had a dramatic spin during his run - the Swiss driver somehow avoided the barriers but that confirmed his status as did not qualify. Bruner improved to 4th, but was then beaten by a great run from Ledesma - 123.427 Matthews put in a clutch performance to beat Bruner to 5th by close to 0.2mph, and put both of them on the bubble for qualifying. Their chances improved when Klien couldn't go any faster - one of the shocks of the session. After Domenicalli and Garica - both who had already qualified - finished their runs, it was down to Holzberg's final run. The German had the hopes of his team resting on him, and he delivered. A run just shy of 123.4 got him ahead of Matthews and Bruner into 5th. Ellington was the last man out, raising the bar to a 125.167, and qualifying with ease, alongside Domenicalli, Garcia, Ledesma, Holzberg and Matthews - one driver from each team. Q2With a 124 projected as the cut off speed for getting into the top 10, and thus Q3, plenty of drivers went out early looking to get some good bankers in. First out was Einarsson, who kicked things off with a 123.75. He was soon surpassed by Mitsubishi's McLaughlin and Porsche's Bergkvist. Both Ferrari's were unable to beat Einarsson, and neither could the two Lada's, both whom struggled. Alaniz had a shocker as well, while some of the usual suspects joined McLaughlin and Bergkvist at the top - Maxwell, Vocquelin and Taylor. Worryingly for Maserati though, Cesar could only slot in behind Zvironas, while Yoshida was much further down. Zozulya faired little better, while Hutchinson also stuttered his way to just ahead of Yoshida. The rest of the laps filtered in slowly but surely. Some Q1 drivers, such as Ellington, Domenicalli and - impressively - Matthews faired well while others lagged behind. Arrow found themselves just in the top 10 with van Snelheid, with Xun Zhao further back. Toyota were the first to finish both their attempts and their cars ended up well off the pace. The first big shock came when Yoshida did his final run and couldn't improve, confirming that the Japanese driver would take no further part in qualifying. He was joined by a few others who couldn't improve - namely Hudson and Ostberg in a disappointing session for Lada. Ferrari meanwhile improved only by a small margin with Thunder and Zvironas, both unable to break into the top 10. Einarsson was on course to put himself into Q3 but a slide on his final lap threw that away. Zozulya and Cesar finished their final runs and both were simply unable to find any pace, ending up down in 15th and 16th, the two biggest surprises of the session. However Hutchinson, on debut with Jaguar, pulled a run together when he needed and got up to eight, dropping Garcia outside the top 10. Ellington, Domenicall and Matthews improved to 3rd, 4th and 5th, with some really impressive performances. Bergkvist took the fastest run with a 125.191, ahead of McLaughlin. Further down, a last grasp effort from Garica saw him pip van Snelheid - who was on course to improve but had a poor end to his 2nd run. This dropped van Snelheid to 11th and saw both Arrow cars fail to make it to Q3. Garcia was through though, along with the aforementioned 5 drivers. Hutchinson, Vocquelin, Taylor and Maxwell joined them, making it 8 teams in Q3, 2 of whom were only just making their debut. Q3Temperatures were running high, as were expectations as Q3 was set to begin. With just 1 run left amongst the drivers, it was crucial to nail it.
Garcia went first, and after some close calls only managed a 122.9, though making it to Q3 was still an incredible achievement for Thunderhead. Matthews followed up with a 123.6, which Vocquelin smashed with a mid 124. Hutchinson was cautious, perhaps mindful of this being his first eV session, and wound up some half a mile per hour down on Vocquelin. Domenicalli put in yet another impressive performance as he split the pair, before Bergkvist went fastest with a 124.6 Taylor was next and he smashed that with a right on the ragged edge run that made everyone sit up - 125.049. It was a tall order to beat and one McLaughlin could not stack up to, despite his best efforts, the Kiwi taking 2nd. After Ellington failed to make an impact with his run, it was down to Maxwell to beat Taylor. He matched the Briton over the first lap, was slightly slower in the second but drew back alongside on the third. But perhaps that all took the best out of him and as he crossed the line he was 0.2 miles per hour short, good enough for the front row but not for pole. And so, two of last year's major protagonists, Taylor and Maxwell, line up at the front. Mitsubishi start 3rd with McLaughlin ahead of the two Porsche's, Bergkvist and Vocquelin. Domenicalli was one of the stars of qualifying, in 6th ahead of Ellington, a much better showing from Highwind after last year. Hutchinson had to make do with 8th, Matthews and OSM were rightly delighted with 9th and Garcia rounded out the top 10.
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