Talented Australian Will Power, will grid up in Pole Position for the second World Series by Renault race at Zolder in Belgium tomorrow!ÿ Will improved on an impressive first-qualifying session earlier today that will place him on row two of the grid for the first race tomorrow morning.

This weekend marks the Carlin Motorsport driver’s debut European race meeting with the World Series and on Thursday morning Will drove the Zolder circuit for the first time when the Formula Renault 3.5 cars ventured out for a collective test.ÿ

The 29 WSR cars took to the track together for the first qualifying session this morning and Power held provisional pole from Marcus Winkelhock with his second lap time of the session.ÿ After a series of spins and big crash at the famous ’Gilles Villeneuve chicane’, the yellow caution flags prohibited any more ‘quick laps’ and the session ended with Will in P4, still by his second lap of the day, a 1min18.510s.

The cars were split into two groups one ‘odd’ and the other ‘even’ numbers, to make qualifying two run more smoothly after the eventful first session. The faster of the two groups destined to start on the pole position side of the grid for race two.

Will dominated the even-numbered session with a time of 1min18.313s ahead of Jaap Van Lagen and Robert Kubica and the group emerged fastest, placing Will in a comfortable Pole Position!

“It’s a good start to the weekend and I’m looking forward to the races.ÿ Will said afterwards. “This is my first Pole Position in Europe and I hope it can follow through to a race win tomorrow, plus anything is possible for race one from the second row - I guess we’ll see how it pans out, I’m out there to be consistent and score points because that’s what wins championships.”

Race one tomorrow is a 19 lap sprint race and takes place at 11:49am local time, while race two at 14:34pm is 27 laps and incorporates a compulsory pit-stop.


Qualifying One Results: Qualifying Two Results:

1. Enrico Toccacelo 1:18.066 1. Will Power 1:18.313
2. Andreas Zuber ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿ 1:18.315 2. Enrico Toccacelo 1:18.501
3. Markus Winkelhock 1:18.505 3. Jaap Van Lagen ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿ 1:18.561
4. Will Power 1:18.510 4. Adrian Valles 1:18.739
5. Jaap Van Lagen ÿ ÿ ÿ ÿ 1:18.633 5. Robert Kubica 1:18.787


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Carlin Motorsport driver, Will Power had his hopes of a high points scoring finish spoiled despite some strong qualifying results yesterday when a failure and then a spin finished both his races.

Will’s race day did not start well when a drive-shaft failure prevented him from making it to the grid; it was a huge disappointment after a trouble free weekend for the number 4 car.

Race two did not go much better for Power from P1 on the grid, as he slotted in behind Enrico Toccacelo after a troubled getaway.ÿ But by lap three Will was breathing down the neck of the 1st placed car and the two drivers had carved themselves a healthy gap ahead of the rest of the field.ÿ However, it was short lived when Will’s car slung into a spin on lap 7 and although undamaged, he was unable to re-start it putting an end to his race.

“It was a very frustrating day for me after yesterday’s good results.” Said Will. “We didn’t get off to a good start, having to miss race one because of a failure, but these sorts of things happen in racing. I didn’t get a good start off the line in race two when my dash was reading a gear failure, which left me fighting to keep off Jaap Van Lagen in third, but I was quickly back on the leader and looking to have a go. Everyone's been having gear shift problems and something happened on lap 7 throwing me into a spin and then couldn’t re-start the car, we’ll have a look to see exactly what happened on the data back at the workshop.”

The next race for the WSR cars is at the Monaco Grand Prix on May 20 and 21 where they will support the Formula One World Championship at the famous event.

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