Swiss Zele Racing driver, Christof von Grünigen, has finished Qualifying for the AutoGP of Italy on P2
Already in the free practice sessions, von Grünigen was pretty strong and actually managed to outpace his teammate and title contender Tamas Pal Kiss, who had set the fastest lap time in the first stint.
In qualifying, the 22-year-old Swiss missed out on Pole by just a few hundreds and will start from the front row alongside German Markus Pommer into his first-ever AutoGP event. “I am delighted. I tried to get to know the track in the first session and the find the right balance in the second. Together with the team, we analysed my errors from the training and everything worked out in qualifying”, von Grünigen was all smiles.
Teamboss Michael Zele was “highly content with Christof’s performance. At the tests a few weeks ago, he proved his potential. He can match Tamas‘ pace.” Unfortunately, the Hungarian team leader could not battle for Pole, as Kiss was hindered by breaking problems finally coming 5th. “That was certainly disappointing, but we will have to stick our heads together and get it sorted for Saturday”, Zele added.
For the first time since joining the AutoGP World Series, Zele Racing has entered three cars. Venezuelan talent Samin Gomez, who has not been racing since November 2013, did a good job improving her times massively. She will start from P12 Saturday. “Samin had her first day in the car today, so she had to get acquainted with the car and the conditions first. But she lowered her lap times by three seconds from FP1 to qualifying, which is OK.”
Saturday’s race will start at 3.35 pm, while the second run will be on Sunday at 11.20 am.
