Ferrari | Coppa Shell EU, Imola: Zieman powers to pole for Race 1

The Ferrari Finali Mondiali got underway Friday morning at Imola in bright October sunshine with the first qualifying session for the Coppa Shell of the Ferrari Challenge Europe.

After a brief interruption with the red flag because of the presence of gravel on track at the Rivazza, probably due to a spin by Corinna Gostner, the battle for pole was a hard-fought one right until the final minutes of the session. 

In the end it was the Polish driver, Roman Zieman who headed the timesheets, grabbing the top slot with a lap of 1m44.149s: next up was 2022 champion Franz Engstler, four-thousandths of a second behind.

It was a good result for Zieman, who in this way gains one point on Axel Sartigen in the battle for second place in the championship, reducing the gap to 8 points. In any case, the German also had a good qualifying session, ending up third, albeit more than four-tenths of a second adrift.

Fourth place went to another Gostner, Thomas, but in his case the gap was almost six-tenths. Making up the top 5 was the outgoing world champion Ernst Kirchmayr, with Manuela Gostner right behind to complete the group of drivers separated by one second.

#121 Peter Christensen, Formula Racing

Photo by: AG Photo / Manganaro

In the AM class, an eighth place overall for Peter Christensen, behind Claudio Schiavoni, was good enough to earn pole position, the Dane setting a time of 1m45.321s, getting the better of Sweden’s Joakim Olander by just over two-tenths. Third quickest time in class and tenth overall went to champion Alexander Nussbaumer.

A bit further behind were the two contenders for the runner-up slot in the championship: Christian Herdt-Wipper was fourth in class and 13th overall, while Martinus Richter will start the race from 15th place on the grid, and sixth in class.

FERRARI CHALLENGE RESULTS - Imola: Q1 Coppa Shell EU