Florian Alt will be starting from the front of the grid during the Red Bull Rookies Cup race this weekend at BRNO. The 15-year-old stole the pole position in the closing minutes of today's qualifying session from Tomas Vavrous and Arthur Sissis.
"I was feeling good on the bike, and I just got into the perfect position to pick up the slipstream on that lap and made the best use of it," said Alt. "We had to make a few changes to the rear suspension through practice, both after the free practice this morning and between the qualifying sessions. It's a good track I really enjoy it."
Alt, who took his first pole position of his young Red Bull Rookies career today, beat out local hero Vavrous by .004 seconds to top the timesheets at BRNO.
"I was surprised though, normally I know when I have done a good lap but this time I didn't realise it, it was nice surprise when I saw it on the board," Vavrous said. "After that though I was making a few too many mistakes. I like the track here but I must say that racing at home isn't so much fun, there is too much pressure. I hope to be in the top 3 tomorrow but we'll see."
Sissis, who currently sits in 2nd, just 6 points behind season leader Lorenzo Baldassarri, will start from the front row.
I like the track and the bike improved a lot after the morning session," Sissis said. "They changed the front suspension, it was a bit hard to turn in the afternoon but they say that is because of the wind more than anything."
Baldassarri will be starting from the second row in the fifth position behind Alan Techer. Baldassarri finished in 11th during the first session, but was able to quicken his pace during the afternoon session.
"I am happy with that, I had a problem with the engine in the 1st session as it wouldn't rev past 13,000 but they changed the gearing for the 2nd session and the rear suspension so it was quite a bit better," said Baldassarri. "We changed the rear after this morning but it was too hard for the first qualifying so we had to go back a bit. I took the morning to learn the track and really enjoyed it from the start, very different to the Sachsenring, wider, faster, more fun."
The Red Bull Rookies have just three races left before the end of the season. With just 6 points separating Baldassarri and Sissis, every point counts this weekend.
Qualifying Classification
- Florian Alt (GER) 2 minutes 13.644 seconds
- Tomas Vavrous (CZE) +0.004
- Arthur Sissis (AUS) +0.239
- Alan Techer (FRA) +0.262
- Lorenzo Baldassarri (ITA) +0.364
- Xavier Pinsach (ESP) +0.370
- Ivo Lopes (POR) +0.511
- James Flitcroft (GBR) +0.634
- Lukas Trautmann (AUT) +0.723
- Joakim Niemi (FIN) +0.863
