After finishing top of the timesheets in Friday practice, Klaas van Snelheid continued his run of form this weekend, putting his Downton on pole for tomorrows Japanese V-Prix The Dutchman ended the day fractionally ahead of his teammate, Nathaniel Powers, and two tenths clear of the DS Mathershaw of Adrien Simon in third. Q1 To the surprise of many, it was Arden Hutchinson in the Lucas who set the initial pace in Q1, but the Austrian's time was soon bested by the Meteor of Jules Simon, the Frenchman remaining at the head of the group for the rest of the session. The second Meteor of Mario Juan Lopez traded times with Will Hoskins in the Andromeda, before a strong effort got the Brit ahead just before the flag, while Finn Schnyder continued his strong Friday pace to move into Q2 for AMR, along with he second Lucas of Marcus Thunder. Carson Davenport appeared to have just scraped into Q2 for Cheema, before a last-gasp lap from Thunder edged out the Potruguese veteran. Rodolfo de la Fuente and Nikolai Milkovich, meanwhile, both locked up and ran wide at the Turn 6 hairpin in separate incidents, leaving them a few tenths adrift from their respective teammates. Ellington and Beckenbauer struggled to find pace in their Excelsiors, failing to qualify for the second race in succession along with the two Cheema drivers, while Dmytro Kovalenko was unhappy with the balance of his AMR, and ended the session with the slowest time. Full Q1 classification can be seen below. Q2 As the drivers ventured out to get a feel for the track conditions, the wind was beginning to pick up, catching a few drivers out as they began to set more representative lap times, most notably the Franklin pair, Enrique Ruiz and Tumo Kinnumen spinning in tandem on the exit of Turn 3. No contact was made, and no damage caused, spare for perhaps their pride. Felix Pérez lit up the sectors on his way to the top of the timesheets in the early stages, but things weren't going so well on the other side of the FIRST garage, Oleksandr Zozulya having returned to the pits with a suspected hydraulics issue just after his second flying lap. Sebastian Berkgvist was briefly caught out by the slow-lapping Lopez of Viktor Ostberg, and forced to take to the grass on the penultimate corner. The Holmqvist driver was decidedly unimpressed by the incident, as he swiftly made clear over team radio. Adrien Simon displaced Pérez with 20 minutes left to go, but the Downton duo quickly leapt ahead of the Frenchman, where they would stay for the remainder of the session. A slide for Allar Kangur through Turn 8 left the DS Mathershaw driver with some work to do on his final run, sitting on the fringes of the top fifteen. Time continued to tick down, and it was clear Zozulya wouldn't be making it back on track, leaving the Ukranian starting tomorrow's race well down the order. Kinnumen edged out Ruiz by less than three hundredths, courtesy of a tow from Kangur down the main straight as the Estonian was gearing up for his run. A strong final sector was enough for Kangur to line up fifth on the grid. The two North Stars found themselves just under three and five tenths adrift from Ruiz at the head of the fiercely contested midfield battle, split by the Holmqvist of Felix Beyer. His teammate Bergkvist just missed out on a top ten start by half a tenth, finishing marginally ahead of the two Meteors, and the Ocelot of Puccio Giodano. Ostberg struggled to match the pace of his champion teammate Elroy Wagner, while Will Hoskins surprised many with a lap good enough for 19th on the grid in his Andromeda. Finn Schnyder, however, had a repeat of his Australia fortunes, overcorrecting through the high-speed 100R, and ending his Saturday in the barriers for the second race in succession. Full Q2 classifications can be seen below, along with tyre selections for the grid on race day.
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