BMW Motorsport España’s Nerea Martí and NM Racing Team’s Filip Vava shared pole position in today's Supercars Jarama RACE qualifying session at Circuito de Madrid Jarama - RACE.
As anticipated, both sessions were marked by intense competitiveness. The driver of the BMW M4 GT4 (G82) car set the fastest time in the first session, surpassing her closest rival by four-tenths of a second. Meanwhile, the driver of the Mercedes-AMG GT4 secured pole position by a mere 0.001 seconds.
QUALIFYING 1: MARTÍ IMPRESSES
Nerea Martí came out very strong in the first qualifying session of the day, setting an impressive time on her first real lap, which immediately took her to the top of the timesheet.
Suddenly, no one could match the BMW driver's time, which led her to head back to the pits, admitting that it would be very difficult for her to improve on the time she had set at 1'38.863.
However, in the final moments, Nerea Martí had some more stressful moments, as Guillermo Aso and Salvador Tíneo, both in Mercedes AMG GT4s, came very close to the BMW Motorsport España driver's mark, both within four tenths.
The NM Racing Team driver even caused a red flag due to a run-off, but managed to come back and secure second place on the grid, beating Team VRT’s Salvador Tíneo by 0.071s.
NM Racing Team’s Alberto de Martín was highly competitive, and lost just over a second and a half to his pole time, and was the strongest of the GT4 Bronze cars, beating Borja Hormigos by seven tenths of a second, who came sixth overall. NM Racing Team’s Alba Cano followed.
The Barcelona team, which has four cars, was in the spotlight this afternoon, as it was also the strongest in GT4 Am, with Keith Gatehouse recording eighth time, two tenths of a second behind Sérgio Azevedo in his Batina Racing BMW M4 GT4 (F82).
Henrique Cruz made an auspicious debut in the Tockwith Motorsports Ginetta G55, lapping in 1'42.202, which allowed him to climb to ninth place overall and be the strongest GTX driver, beating Tomás Pinto Abreu, in a Ginetta G50 also from the British team, by seven tenths of a second.
Between these two drivers was the best of the Touring Car drivers, Pedro Herraiz, in the RX Pro Racing Hyundai i30 TCR. The Spanish driver is driving the Hyundai for the first time, achieving a top-10 finish in the session
Rui Miritta, who drove the Monteiros Competição Porsche 911 Cup, was the strongest in the GTC duel, coming between the McLaren 570S GT4 of McLaren Barcelona - SMC Motorsport, driven by Rafael Muncharaz, and the BMW M4 GT4 (G82) of Promotion Motorsport, with Smörg at the wheel.
Filipe Matias continued his learning progress in the Monteiros Competição Ginetta G40 entered in the TC division, taking eighteenth place on the grid for tomorrow's race.
QUALIFYING: VAVA’S POLE BY 0,001s
In the first qualifying session, uncertainty persisted until the drop of the checkered flag. The second session, however, was decided by a mere thousandth of a second in favor of Filip Vava in the NM Racing Team's Mercedes AMG GT4, with a time of 1'37.778. This time bested Francisco Abreu's previous record of 1'37.897 from last year's second qualifying session.
Once again, the BMW M4 GT4 (G82) from BMW Motorsport España took an early lead, this time driven by José de los Milagros. However, Vava's counterattack placed his Mercedes in first position by just 0.001 seconds.
Milagros returned to the track in an attempt to regain pole-position, but with the track hotter and the tyres already past their peak, his attempt was unsuccessful and he ended up settling for second place on tomorrow's grid.
The NM Racing Team was once again in top form, with Nil Montserrat securing third place, just 0.286 seconds behind his teammate. He established himself as the best in the GT4 Bronze division, beating Orlando Batina in the Batina Racing BMW M4 GT4 (F82) by less than half a second. The Portuguese driver delivered an excellent performance, outperforming Mercedes GT4 European Series driver Andy Cantu of NM Racing Team and local racer Luís González of Team VRT, who finished in the subsequent positions.
Igor Sorokin, who is in Jarama for the first time, set an excellent mark and was the best of the GT4 Am cars, replicating his team-mate's performance. However, this time he had to deal with strong opposition from Javier Macias, in the BMW M4 GT4 (G82) of Promotion Motorsport, and the two were separated by half a second.
British female driver Jemma Moore took the #37 Tockwith Motorsport Ginetta G55 into the top ten in ninth, outqualifying Héctor Hernández in the Autoworks Motorsport BMW.
Marcus Fothergill was quicker than Rui Miritta in the Cup, while Samuel Gomez was the fastest in the RX Pro Racing Hyundai.
Unfortunately, Gabriela Correia wasn't able to take part in qualifying due to an accident in the Free Practice.
Tomorrow's races will start at 10:15 AM and 4:05 PM. Both can be followed live on the competition's official social media channels (Facebook and YouTube) and, in Spain, on DAZN. In Portugal, A Bola TV will broadcast the first race live and the second on delay. In the meantime, you can watch the qualifying press conference and follow the Pit-Walk live, starting at 6:00 PM.
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