28 Apr 2012

Monje, driving a SUNRED SEAT León TDI, set the fastest lap time (2:15.086) early in the thirty-minute Qualifying session and then spent anxious minutes in the pit lane waiting to see if his time would be bettered. It wasn’t, so Monje was able to save his tyres for tomorrow’s two races.
The front row for Race 1 will be an all-SEAT affair, after the second quickest time was set by Michal Matějovský (2:16.215). The Czech driver, is making his ETCC debut in Slovakia this weekend and so was delighted at his performance. Both SEAT men, however, are aware that third-placed Petr Fulín (2:16.822) will be a real threat tomorrow; his BMW needed an engine change this morning and so he hadn’t completed many laps of the circuit, but the fact that he set the fastest time in the first test session confirmed that Fulín should be a real contender for a race win.|
Fourth on the grid for Race 1 will be Norway’s Stian Paulsen, who is also the first of the competitors in the Single-Make series. In all, there are four SEAT León Cup cars in Slovakia and Paulsen (2:17.611) is conscious that he will face a stiff challenge from fifth-placed Andreas Pfister (2:17.850) and local hero Patrick Nemec in sixth place (2:18.227).
Only two drivers - both in a Honda Civic Type R car - are entered in the Super Production category, but the ETCC’s opening pair of races in Monza saw one race victory apiece go to Nikolay Karamyshev and Aleksandar Tošić, underlining how close the competition is between the pair. Karamyshev (2:27.653) will start Race 1 from twelfth on the grid, but Tošić (2:29.163) is thirteenth...
Finally, there are no fewer than eleven cars entered in the Super 1600 category, including three Chevrolet Aveo cars from Maurer Motorsport that are making their debut in the ETCC. Just as in Monza, it was Kevin Krammes in a Ford Fiesta (2:30.296) who headed the S1600 competitors, but Paolo Necchi (2:32.260) and Ulrike Krafft (2:32.944) will be determined that Krammes will have a fight on his hands if he wants to repeat the haul of 23 points he took away from the first pair of ETCC races.