Enrique Ruiz took pole this afternoon for the Australian V-Prix ahead of his Mathershaw Porsche teammate in Adrien Simon, but it was what happened behind them in qualifying that shocked everybody. Q1In the end, it was Dmytro Kovalenko who was able to hook up a good lap as he crossed the line setting a 1:29.692. He was followed by the 2 Westwoods, who could only lap just within half a second of the Ukrainian. The next surprise of the session was Yakumi Takahashi, who seemingly came from nowhere on his final run to set the second fastest time, just over a tenth off of Kovalenko. His new teammate, Lewis Ellington followed him through but couldn't set a lap time faster than the Westwoods, slower by half a tenth. Behind him, Finn Schnyder and, more surprisingly, the 2 Cheemas, simply could not find the grip to set a competitive enough laptime, and were therefore eliminated. See below for full Q1 classification: Q2So then came along Q2, with the sun setting behind some light clouds, leading to some drivers complaining about visibility on the pit straight. None the less, the session continued. The Downton duo in Powers and van Snelheid set the very early pace, just 12 milliseconds apart. Both Mathershaws on the other hand bided their time in the garages. They finally came out, and virtually matched the Downtons in the first 2 sectors. Both Ruiz and Simon however managed to find the edge in the final sector to lock out the front row, but less than a tenth separated the Top 4. Behind them, Felix Perez was also very close through the first 2 sectors, but he ended up 2 tenths off the front in 5th. Adelaide boy Hunter Ryan lines up alongside him in his home race, with Hoskins, Kangur and Zvironas rounding out the Top 9. You may have noticed we didn't round out the Top 10 in the previous paragraph. Jean Mattson didn't qualify there, he's 11th. Wagner didn't either, he qualified 12th. Halvosen was 13th, James Vasquez, then Alvarez in 15th. You could hear the pandemonium at the far end of the pit lane all the way from Far North Queensland, because none other than Dmytro Kovalenko had put his AMR into the Top 10 at his team's home race. He later described it as the best lap of his life. The most incredible stat behind his qualifying effort is that he qualified less than 7 tenths away from pole position, and the whole paddock still has no idea just quite how he pulled it off. You may even see him making some overtakes in the race, as he is running a softer compound to some of the drivers ahead of him. Gabriele Garcia was the last driver to qualify within a second of Ruiz and lines up 16th, ahead of the 2 Westwoods and Marcus Thunder for Lucas. Giani Ledesma showed some promise as he out-qualified Felix Beyer, while Yakumi Takahashi will make his and Arrow's Formula Virtual debut from P22 on the grid. Thierry Xylander, Carson Davenport and the 2 Franklins brought up the rear of the grid, as Nick Addison qualified last in his home race. See below for full Q2 classification, as well as the grid and tyre choices for the race:
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