Yas Qualifying Duel Ends With Alliot on Top

Joey Alliot scored Carson Speedworks their second straight pole position to start the season during the qualifying session for the 2019 Yas Supercar Festival.

The American would get in a session-long duel with Ravenwest Motorsport owner/driver Nathan McKane which saw them trade fastest lap times numerous times in the session. The pair exited the pit lane bumper to bumper at the start of the session and were unopposed at the top of the field. The Scotsman would take advantage of the slipstream that the Corvette ahead would provide, but Alliot’s performance in the middle and final sector proved too much to overcome. Alliot and McKane ended up being separated by seven thousandths of a second once the dust settled.

Qualifying third was Alliot’s teammate in Li Qi, but a further six tenths off of the blistering pace set by the top two. Qi set the quickest time seen in the two practice session during the Saturday session, but was no match to the cars ahead. Joining him on row two is reigning World Driver’s Champion Chris Winter in his Solvalou Lamborghini. Behind them on row three sees Anton Robishaud putting in his second straight fifth place qualifying result in the Pagani, and rookie Emma Pescatore continuing to show promise in her rookie season with Solvalou.

Topping the times for the Independents for the second straight weekend was James Douglas, six tenths clear of Melanie Bourne in a current-spec Corvette. They were the only two Independent cars that will start in the top ten for Sunday’s race, Douglas starting seventh and Bourne starting in tenth. The next closest Independent car was Koyomi Setou in a Best In The World Lamborghini, starting thirteenth but a full second off the pace set by the Tom Douglas Racing driver.

Behind Setou saw two cars separated by one thousandth of a second on the time sheets. Darren Older Jr. and Natsuki Yaname put in near identical times and will share the eighth row of the grid for the race on Sunday. They were 1.7 seconds off of the pace of Alliot and Mckane.

Qualifying Results – Yas Supercar Festival