Lawson really put on a show for the Kiwi fans watching from afar as well as the German fans as he continued to go faster and faster as time ran down in Q1.
The crucial 3 points from qualifying have been awarded to Lawson meaning he slightly extends his lead of the championship to 15 points heading into race 1.
Both Kiwis were out early on the track and spent no time messing around, Cassidy and Lawson shot to the top of the times with Cassidy bettering Lawson by 5 thousandths of a second into the first 2 minutes of the session.
With 13 mins to go Lawson jumped to top of the times after having dropped down some spots back to 5th with Maini and Van der Linde setting some quick laps.
Without hesitation Liam went on to better his time again on the next lap, scorching the times setting a 48s lap, the first driver of the weekend to do so.
But, Arjun Maini was back blazing the circuit and set a new quickest time with Kelvin Van der Linde following sending Lawson into 3rd .
The two Ferraris entered the pits cooling off the cars waiting until the right moment to hit the track again in an attempt to claim pole.
Both Kiwis rejoined the track with 8 minutes left on the clock and started to heat up their tyres for the crucial final 5 minutes.
With 3 minutes left Lawson made a great attempt at that goal of P1, taking provisional pole on a 0:48.903. He passed the start finish line to start his next lap and completed yet another lap which was quick enough for pole just 1 thousandth slower than his provisional pole lap.
But Lawson was not done yet, as he went even quicker setting a seriously impressive 0:48.766 giving himself a gap of 0.172 to the next driver in P2.
To the astoundment of the commentator Lawson had even more in the tank and went quicker again setting his final time of 0:48.720 to claim pole position earning those 3 critical championship points!
Post qualifying Interview:
How relieved are you that you’re starting on pole?:
“It really was the key today with the weight we have in the car now we have to do our best to keep everyone behind and I know that this is a tough track to overtake on so, that’s good as well.”
“Really, really happy the guys did a great job yesterday, the team made some great changes from FP1 to FP2 and set the car up really well this morning as well.”
How does it feel moving onto the race knowing your main rival is starting P2?:
“He’s[Kelvin Van der Linde] right next to me on the grid it’s going to be really tough. He’s going to be out to get me but i’m ready. He hasn’t got any weight in the car so we’re just gonna have to keep him behind!”
Finally can you just tell us a little bit about how you feel moving into these final 2 races as the championship leader?:
“Proud of the whole team to be in this position going into the final weekend.”
“There was a point in the year where I thought we were out of it but it was my team that brought me up and told me that the points would come and now look where we are! We’re going to try and finish it off this weekend [win the championship]!”
Here are the qualifying results for race 1:
Featured image source: youtube.com/dtm
