Nathaniel Powers has taken his second consecutive pole position ahead of the Italian V-Prix, but less than a tenth of a second covered the top three. Klaas van Snelheid joins his team mate on the front row, but Enrique Ruiz was a consistent thorn in the side of the Downton duo throughout the session, ending up less than seven hundredth away from the pole time. Q1Despite slipping back into Q1 here in Italy after the events of Belgium, practice yesterday showed Lucas had no real reason to be concerned about making it out of the session, and this bore fruit in qualifying as they allowed the other teams to run first and clean the track up. Just as the clock ticked past the halfway mark for Q1, the two purple machines joined the fray and swiftly displaced Yakumi Takahashi's Arrow from the top of the times, by a comfortable eight tenths of a second, with just six and a half hundredths splitting the two cars - Carson Davenport lapping marginally faster. With that, the team retreated to the pitlane where they saw the session out, as Takahashi improved his time but couldn't quite get within six tenths of his rivals. Lewis Ellington struggled to match his team mate and was consistently two and a half tenths back throughout the session, being beaten to fourth with ten minutes to go by AMR's Finn Schnyder. The Swiss racer showed reasonable pace in practice and looked on course to make the grid for the third time this season, as Ellington struggled to improve and swiftly abandoned all attempts to do so - failing to qualifying in the same car reserve driver Zander Brynildsen put 15th fastest in practice. Just as the session looked over however, a roar went up from the crowd as Giani Ledesma was shown to be up on a time he needed to beat to make Q2 after the second sector. The cheers guided him around the Parabolica and the Italian set a stunning time within half a tenth of Davenport to go third, and make his way into what looks to be his first and only attempt at his home race. This spelled heartbreak for Schnyder and AMR, while Rafael Palou failed to match his heroics of Belgium and ended the session a tenth down on his team mate, with Felix Beyer tailing the times, he Dutchman complaining throughout the session about the handling of his Meteor car. See below for full Q1 classification: Q2Ledesma was keen to spend as much time on track as possible having made it into Q2, and was duly the first car on track in the session, leading out the Mathershaw Porsche duo who looked incredibly pumped up prior to the session, firmly believing they could take the fight to Downton for pole position. Unsurprisingly they initially settled into a comfortable 1-2 as the midfield and backmarker runners lapped slower, with the biggest surprise being Marcus Thunder setting a thing good enough for third ahead of the two FIRST cars, albeit some seven tenths shy of the ultimate pace. This became a second however as the Downton duo took to the track, Powers topping the times by a tenth from van Snelheid following their first runs. Behind, Thunder was demoted to eighth by the North Star pair and James Vasquez following the last laps of everyone's opening runs, but FIRST were left scratching their heads with their cars down in eleventh and thirteenth, separated as they were in practice by Sergio Alvarez. Throughout the session so far the track temperature had been falling, and continued to do so as the majority of the field headed to the pits for fresh tyres, now six degrees cooler than when the lights went green. Keen to capitalise, FIRST sent their drivers out early, and the duo swiftly returned to their now usual positions of fifth and sixth, a few tenths shy of Mathershaw Porsche cars. Downton noticed this and followed suit, but Ruiz and Simon remained patient in the garage, as the French team watched the track temperature continue to fall steadily. van Snelheid improved to snatch pole momentarily but Powers soon took it back, albeit by just quarter of a tenth of a second, as Ruiz and Simon finally joined the party, amongst the last drivers to do so with their second run. It quickly became clear this tactic had paid off, as the temperature continued to drop to a more suitable level for the tyres, while the Downton duo had now used the best of the rubber and were struggling to improve. Adrien Simon managed purple in sector one but his lap fell away, the Frenchman ending up three tenths shy, but a green opening sector and purple second sector put Enrique Ruiz right in the ball park for position. Despite the fantastic strategy though, it wasn't quite to be - as the Brazilian fell short by just 68 hundredths of a second, and had to settle for third. Behind, FIRST also paid the price for running early, as brilliant laps from Johan Halvosen and James Vasquez saw them on the third row, demoting the American outfit to the fourth, ahead of a jubilant Gabriele Garcia, the Brazilian a brilliant ninth, albeit four tenths behind Halvosen. Hunter Ryan completed the top ten for Ocelot as they looked to consolidate seventh in the constructors Championship, just edging out Thunder who still ended up a respectable eleventh, right on the fringes of the points the team will be hoping to score to lift them out of Q1. Behind the British driver by just four thousandths was the lead Westwood of Puccio Giodano, the Bolton-based team concerned at starting behind rivals Ocelot, while the third team in the fight for seventh locked out the seventh row, Sergio Alvarez started ahead of a much happier Thierry Xylander for Phoenix. Jean Mattson's mysterious lack of pace continued, as did Karl Beckenbauer's inability to match his team mate, while Allar Kangur ended the session as the top Lopez in seventhteenth, ahead of a disappointed Carson Davenport, the Portuguese driver feeling a mistake on his best lap cost him a shot at joining team mate Thunder on row six. Behind, Nick Addison led the Franklin charge but could only managed nineteenth, while Ledesma failed to much impact on Q2 and ended the session last, albeit only five thousandths of a second shy of Yakumi Takahashi's Arrow. See below for full Q2 classification:
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