Kiss is on pole in Portimao Supercopa Race 1

2010. július 2. 18:05 | még nem szólt hozzá senki.  szerző: Viktor Adorján

After securing his 1st victory in the SEAT Leon Supercopa in Jarama, Norbert Kiss secured his first pole position on his 2nd outing in Portimao. Kiss aims to "survive" the races on Saturday and aims to attack on Sunday. Da Costa starts from P6, Solti from P24, Kontra from P25.

Only two qualifying sessions were needed for Norbert Kiss to take his first ever pole position in a high level single brand championship such as the Spanish SEAT Leon Supercopa. The Hungarian driver was recruited by Zengő-Dension Team before the second round of the series which took place Jarama a month ago and on the following occasion he took pole position today in Portimao.

Like his teammates Kiss was driving with used tyres on the first two free practices and along with the mechanics he was concerned over the performance of his package after he finished 11th on Free Practice 1 and 4th on Free Practice 2 with a slower time that he could achieve initially.

Increasing wind and tyre pillars changed the conditions before the qualifying and it was not possible to make sure how the qualifying will work out, even Norbert Kiss was concerned regarding the outcome of the situation. Kiss did two timed laps then decided to fit a new set of tyres for the front axle that made a decisive difference regarding the behavior of his car.

Norbert Kiss said: "I went out at first, did a couple of laps but these weren't so good, but not bad either. Then I came back for other tyres for the front in which the tyre pressures were different and I immediately felt over the out lap that 'who, this is good!'

"Of course there was a huge mistake that cost me three tenths of a second it but the others things were good. The adjustments that we did with the setups, the tyre pressures proved to be faultless decisions."

This second attempt brought a 1:57.717 that was faster than Antonio De La Reina by 0.240 seconds. Third placed driver Antoni Forné was 0.343 off the pace on third while local competitor Vitor Sauto finished fourth ahead of Marc Carol.

Third row for da Costa

Duarte Félix da Costa finished 6th on the qualifying on home soil as the Portuguese driver races this weekend in the Spanish championship in Portimao. Da Costa aims to finish the first race on a high because unless this he'll have a tough time later in the weekend thanks to the unique race format of the SEAT Leon Supercopa.

Not only Duarte - who did a 1:58.305 - needs to keep his place to secure the chances for the weekend. This is true for Norbert Kiss as well who has to be among the frontrunners on Saturday's races. That is why Kiss plans to be careful on Saturday afternoon.

"I'll try to catch momentum but unfortunately this way of organising the start when we accelerate when we see the sign is bringing the accidents. I'll try to survive and escape from the others. If I see that somebody is really pushing hard behind me I'll leave him to go and we'll see what happens.

"To be frank I rate the Sunday's race the most important, I'll look after the car on Saturday and try to make onto he podium and to attack hard on Sunday.

Attila Solti and György Kontra finished the session a bit more behind the frontrunners of the Zengő-Dension Team as they ended up 24th and 25th on the grid.

Race 1 is key

Zengő-Dension Team are in a reasonably good position before tomorrow afternoon's Race 1 with Norbert Kiss being on pole followed by Duarte Félix da Costa on 6th.

It is not a question that Kiss should try to keep the lead as long as he can while his Portuguese teammate stays on 6th which would be essential for a potential pole position for Sunday.

Race 1 will start at 3:05 PM local time, join us on Twitter for the first two installments of the Spanish SEAT Leon Supercopa weekend in Portimao.

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