Lamborghini World Final: Harata tops first Am/Cup qualifying

The 2017 Super Trofeo North America Am class champion set his pole position time just six minutes into the 20-minute session, knocking Miroslav Konopka off top spot.

Philipp Wlazik went second fastest, four tenths slower than Harata, moments later - with the battle for pole then put on hold by a three-minute full course yellow caused by Supachai Weeraborwongpong going off at Tamburello.

While nobody was able to challenge Harata’s time when the green flag returned with eight minutes to go, Super Trofeo Europe Am champion Teodor Myszkowski, sharing with Andrej Lewandwoski jumped to second with a lap 0.559s off Harata’s time.

But late on, Wlazik reclaimed second place with a time 0.462s off Harata to shuffle Myskowski down to third.

With the yellow flags flying late on thanks to Mario Cordoni’s trip into the gravel at Tamburello, late improvements were difficult and Harata did not better his time despite returning for a second run late on.

In the Lamborghini Cup Class, North American duo Ryan Hardwick and JC Perez battled hard for pole position.

Perez looked to have secured class pole, and fourth overall, with his time set before the full course yellow.

But Hardwick, who was ahead of Cordoni’s off at Tamburello, crossed the line with 10 seconds remaining to take the position by four-tenths of a second.

Raffaele Giannoni was sixth fastest, 1.2s off pole, with Massimo Mantovani securing seventh place with three minutes remaining.

Carrie Schreiner was the best of the Asia series regulars in eighth, ahead of Konopka and Andrew Haryanto.

Third-best of the Lamborghini Cup runners was Cameron Cassels in 16th place.