Rhys Davies Takes Pole Position for First Baku Grand Prix

CWG Team MacMillan driver Rhys Davies secured pole position for the opening race of the inaugural Baku Grand Prix.

With his and Tomo Kazama’s victory in Canada still in doubt, the ace of Ford’s driver roster went to work putting himself in the best position to get full points from the Baku Grand Prix weekend with his second pole position of the season. His best time would stand after Emma Pescatore and Joey Alliot put in their best laps to close the session. All three drivers took major advantage of the slipstream that was possible down the 2.2 kilometer straightaway that finishes the lap around Baku, but the former F1 and ARWS World Champion’s run around the Old City quarter would prove too much for the rest of the field to overcome. Pescatore managed to put in a time three hundredths of a second off of the time set by Davies but would get no closer; her second place starting position her best performance since joining Racing Team Solvalou.

Andrea Constantini returned to first driver duties at BMS Scuderia Italia and put in the fourth best time in the twenty minute qualifying session. The lone full time driver in the factory Ferrari outfit put in his second top five performance in his third run as lead driver, teaming with Alexis Tantovich for Baku and the two rounds that started the season. The second Scuderia Italia Ferrari has Valeri Kozar and Enrico Molinaro for Baku, with the reigning Independent’s Champion putting in the eighth quickest time in the session. Reigning World Driver’s Champion Chris Winter put in the sixth best time in the session, and will start alongside Anton Robishaud on row three.

Starting behind Winter and alongside Kozar for race one will be the first Independent Class entry, with Harrison Wilkinson starting seventh overall. Wilkinson put himself in the middle of the main group of factory cars with a time that was half a second off of the best time of the session from Davies, and another half a second ahead of the next Independent’s Trophy runner in part-timer Nathan Scott. Scott, running his first race this season after being in GTSS full-time previously, will start on row seven alongside fellow part-timer Shouta Sakai in what was a good qualifying session for Independent Lamborghini teams; all Independent Lamborghini runners starting within the top five in class with Koyomi Setou starting fifth in class and sixteenth overall.

The pole position driver from the series’s last round Li Qi struggled with timing for his fast lap which prevented him from putting on a challenge for a good starting position in Azerbaijan. Similarly struggling in the session was Paul Travesen, his best time from qualifying being nearly two seconds off of the pole time set by Rhys Davies. Qi and Travesen will start twenty-first and twenty-fifth respectively.

Qualifying Results – Baku Grand Prix