Servia: So much drama!
Oriol Servia crowned his return to the PKV Racing fold in the best way possible on the opening day of the annual Surfers Paradise round, claiming a pole position and a guaranteed front row start in Friday's qualifying session.
The Spaniard, taking over the #22 Pay By Touch entry from the absent Tristan Gommendy, claimed top spot on the timesheets with the very last lap of the session, setting a new lap record in the process.
“I am really happy to be on pole, really happy to give a good result to the PKV Pay By Touch car," Servia smiled, "It's a great start for the weekend, I thought the car was already good in the morning but it was all fine, it was all about putting the lap together and there was a lot of drama everywhere. There was a red flag every time I was out there so I couldn't do a lap. It must have been the most drama in a qualifying, it was like a one lap shoot out in the end for everybody and we were just able to do a fast lap because the car was good.We need to finish like this on Sunday afternoon, I have been on pole before and I know it all counts on the last lap so that is what I am going to be working on. I would like to thank Kevin Kalkhoven, Jimmy Vasser and Mark Johnson for having the faith and believing in me for this race, and of course the crew for all their hard work. We couldn't have a better chance going in to the start of this weekend."
The race is on ESPN 2 Saturday night at 10:30 Central Standard Time.
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| -- Fastest Lap -- | | -- Time Behind -- | |||||||||||||
| Pos | | Driver | | # | | Team | | Lap Time | | Mph | | km/h | | Leader | | Previous |
| 1 | | O. Servia | | 22 | | PKV Racing Pay By Touch | | 1:30.862 | | 110.739 | | 178.217 | | | ||
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| 2 | | W. Power | | 5 | | Team Australia | | 1:30.895 | | 110.699 | | 178.152 | | 0.033 | | |
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| 3 | | J. Wilson | | 9 | | RSPORTS | | 1:31.365 | | 110.130 | | 177.237 | | 0.503 | | 0.470 |
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| 4 | | P. Tracy | | 3 | | Forsythe Championship Racing | | 1:31.820 | | 109.584 | | 176.358 | | 0.958 | | 0.455 |
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| 5 | | N. Jani | | 21 | | PKV Racing | | 1:32.520 | | 108.755 | | 175.024 | | 1.658 | | 0.700 |
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| 6 | | R. Doornbos | | 14 | | Minardi Team USA | | 1:32.675 | | 108.573 | | 174.731 | | 1.813 | | 0.155 |
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| 7 | | B. Junqueira | | 19 | | Dale Coyne Racing | | 1:32.875 | | 108.339 | | 174.354 | | 2.013 | | 0.200 |
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| 8 | | S. Bourdais | | 1 | | Newman/ Haas/ Lanigan Racing | | 1:32.883 | | 108.330 | | 174.340 | | 2.021 | | 0.008 |
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| 9 | | S. Pagenaud | | 15 | | Team Australia | | 1:33.018 | | 108.173 | | 174.087 | | 2.156 | | 0.135 |
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| 10 | | N. Philippe | | 34 | | Conquest Racing | | 1:33.187 | | 107.976 | | 173.770 | | 2.325 | | 0.169 |
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| 11 | | D. Clarke | | 4 | | Minardi Team USA | | 1:33.866 | | 107.195 | | 172.513 | | 3.004 | | 0.679 |
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| 12 | | K. Legge | | 11 | | Dale Coyne Racing | | 1:33.986 | | 107.058 | | 172.293 | | 3.124 | | 0.120 |
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| 13 | | G. Rahal | | 2 | | Newman/ Haas/ Lanigan Racing | | 1:34.049 | | 106.987 | | 172.178 | | 3.187 | | 0.063 |
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| 14 | | D. Martinez | | 7 | | Forsythe Championship Racing | | 1:35.578 | | 105.275 | | 169.423 | | 4.716 | | 1.529 |
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| 15 | | A. Figge | | 29 | | Pacific Coast Motorsports | | 1:44.381 | | 96.397 | | 155.136 | | 13.519 | | 8.803 |
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| 16 | | A. Tagliani | | 8 | | RSPORTS | | 3:20.825 | | 50.103 | | 80.633 | | 1:49.963 | | 1:36.444 |
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| 17 | | M. Dominguez | | 28 | | Pacific Coast Motorsports | | 4:27.161 | | 37.663 | | 60.613 | | 2:56.299 | | 1:06.336 |
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