René Rast takes up the eighth round of the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup on the Hungaroring on Sunday from pole position. On the Grand Prix circuit on the outskirts of Budapest, the German secured his third straight top time in qualifying with the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup fielded by VELTINS MRS Racing. With this, he was 0.200ths of a second faster than Porsche Carrera Cup regular Jan Seyffarth (Germany), who competes as a guest for the tolimit/Seyffarth Motorsport squad.

The fight for pole position was again gripping from start to finish. For a long time it looked as though title defender and points’ leader Jeroen Bleekemolen would set pole. But when first René Rast and then Jan Seyffarth knocked him off the top of the time list in the second qualifying session shortly before the end, the Konrad Motorsport pilot from the Netherlands was not able to counter and had to settle for third on the grid. Lining up alongside him in the second row is Ireland’s Damien Faulkner. For last year’s winner driving for the Walter Lechner Racing School team, this marks his best qualifying result so far this season.

With the fifth quickest time, his team mate Stefan Rosina secured a good starting position for the race. The Slovakian, who recently claimed a podium position with second on the Nürburgring, shares the third row with the Dutch Supercup record holder Patrick Huisman (SPS Performance), who netted three of his 24 Supercup wins on the Hungaroring. Two other Konrad Motorsport pilots follow with Jiri Janak from the Czech Republic and Spain’s Siso Cunill. For Supercup rookie Cunill, this was a strong performance. At 18-years he is the youngest driver in the field, and his eighth in today’s qualifying is his best result this season.

Occupying the fifth row is Germany’s Lance David Arnold (SPS Performance) and Norbert Siedler (VELTINS MRS Racing) from Austria.

René Rast (pole-sitter): “That was not an easy qualifying but again we had the best strategy. In the first session I was only fifth and had actually given up hope of improving my time. Then I put in a perfect lap which was enough for pole position. If I can get away well tomorrow it could mean a light to flag victory.

Jan Seyffarth (second qualifier): “The second session was great. Unfortunately I went on the grass because I was pushing too hard for pole and I lost two or three-tenths of a second. Still, we are pleased. We’ve shown that we belong up the front, the car was perfect – even though we have no experience whatsoever on this track. Now I’ll try to win the start sprint. If I can do this it’ll be a huge step, because it’s hard to overtake on this circuit.”

Jeroen Bleekemolen (third qualifier): “That didn’t run perfectly for us. I was the fastest for a long time, despite not having the best grip today. When René und Jan beat my time I went out again with used tyres. We thought we had something left, but it wasn’t enough. Now I can only hope to get away well tomorrow.”

Television stations “Eurosport 2” (11.45 hrs) and “Sky Sport 2” (11.30 hrs) broadcast the race on the Hungaroring on 26th July live. In addition, “Eurosport” televises highlights on Sunday evening in its “Motorsports Weekend” programme.

1. René Rast (GER), VELTINS MRS Racing, 1:49.442 minutes
2. Jan Seyffarth (GER), tolimit/Seyffarth Motorsport, + 0.200 seconds
3. Jeroen Bleekemolen (NED), Konrad Motorsport, + 0.225
4. Damien Faulkner (IRL), Walter Lechner Racing School, + 0.244
5. Stefan Rosina (SVK), Walter Lechner Racing School, + 0.335
6. Patrick Huisman (NED), SPS Performance, + 0.561