For the third time in four races, and the fifth time this season, Enrique Ruiz took pole position as Porsche Mathershaw locked out the front row of the grid for tomorrow’s Brazilian V-Prix. Q1 The final Q1 session of the season followed the trend of the majority of the season; Arrow and North Star getting both drivers through with considerable ease. It was Yakumi Takahashi who once again topped the session for Arrow, with Brock Kidd and Johan Halvosen looking evenly matched in the North Star. Rofolfo de la Fuente was within a quarter of a second of his teammate and comfortably made it through to the race, to the delight of his team and the Brazilian fans, who fondly remember his time at Andromeda, two years ago. It was the same old story at the bottom of the times, with Highwind not quite close enough to ever really challenge the top two teams, and Scuderia Meteor not even close to the Highwind pair. The end of the era for Highwind – as spoken about by Team Principal Ahmed Cheema – cannot come quick enough and the team will no doubt be looking forward to a bright future with an exciting line up in 2022, while Scuderia Meteor will be hoping the signing of Enzo Domenicalli can aid them in their efforts to avoid a repeat of 2021. Q2 At the start of Q2, it quickly became apparent that Porsche Mathershaw were having difficulties with their #22 car. The team secured second place in the Constructors’ Championship but it wasn’t the start they wanted to qualifying, and the issues looked set to confine Adrien Simon to the garage for the duration. Meanwhile, on track, the early pace was set by Thunder, Kangur, and Forini; each of them setting laps good enough for provisional pole, but the times were tumbling with every lap. The Downton pair and Ruiz flexed their muscles as the session went on, trading fastest times throughout. As the track got faster and faster, it became clear that it would likely come down to nailing the final runs of the session, as well as timing the lap as late as possible. Eventually, it was the home hero Ruiz who beat the rest to pole with a sublime lap. Unbelievably, it was his teammate Adrien Simon who put his car onto the first row of the grid with a single flying lap, the French veteran getting straight into the swing of things after coming out with just a few minutes remaining. Behind the Porsche Mathershaw pair, Marcus Thunder lines up third for Lucas ahead of Nathaniel Powers, who finds himself on the hard tyres for tomorrow’s race – the only driver in the field on them. Immediately behind the two Brits are their teammates, Thunstrom ahead of Klaas, who has a lot to do tomorrow if he wants to snatch the title from Powers. Hoskins, in his final qualifying for FIRST, will start seventh ahead of Kangur on the super softs, Perez, and Forini rounding out the top ten. Elroy Wagner will start his last ever Formula Virtual race from eleventh, just ahead of Nick Addison. The battle between Ocelot, Ingram and Phoenix looks all but over now, but the three teams are all together on the grid, occupying thirteenth to seventeenth, with Mattson a touch further back in 20th. The North Star duo found themselves separated by just three thousandths of a second, giving Team Principal Nick Forrest plenty of optimism for the competitiveness of the two drivers in relation to each other for 2022 onwards, while Rodolfo de la Fuente lines up at the very back for his one off farewell appearance in the Arrow. Official Qualifying Classification below:
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