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Bonanomi claims pole for Euroseries 3000 opener

Italian Marco Bonanomi, driving for the Bull Racing team, claimed pole position for the first race of the new Euroseries 3000 championship at the fantastic Algarve circuit.

The times were incredibly close in the first competitive session in the fabulous new Lola-Zytek cars, with Bonanomi’s pole time of 1m31.823s, just 0.1s seconds faster than Team Craft’s Pastor Maldonado, who will line up alongside him in Saturday afternoon’s first race.

Bonanomi said: “I’m very happy. Pole position is a great result, but the race will not be easy. I know Pastor well from racing against him over the past year and for sure he is always a big fighter. I love the track, I think it’s the best in Europe, and the cars are really fun too – very fast. I think this is going to be a great championship this year.”

Maldonado set a fastest time of 1m31.997s and reckons he can challenge for this race win this afternoon. “We’ve made good progress this weekend, the car has got faster and faster,” he said. “I will try to make a good start tomorrow, but I’ve never made a start in one of these cars before, so I don’t know what to expect. I think the key is to drive an intelligent race to begin with and then really push on in the final five laps.”

Third fastest was Michael Herck, driving for Team Lazurus. The Romanian driver was pleased with his lap of 1m32.228. “I’m happy with that, Bonanomi and Maldonado are good drivers so it’s very good for me to be fighting with them,” he said. “A podium finish would be great for me. I’m really looking forward to the race and I hope to get a strong result.”

Free practice pacesetter, Fabio Onidi, will line up fourth for Fisichella Motorsport International, ahead of TP Formula’s Fabrizio Crestani and Will Bratt, driving for the De Villota team.

1 Marco Bonanomi Bull Racing 1m31.823s

2 Pastor Maldonado Team Craft 1m31.997s

3 Michael Herck Team Lazarus 1m32.228s

4 Fabio Onidi FMSI 1m32.275s

5 Fabrizio Crestani TP Formula 1m32.337s

6 Will Bratt De Villota 1m32.544s

7 Clivio Piccione TP Formula 1m32.735s

8 Rodolfo Gonzalez FMSI 1m32.776s

9 Diego Nunes Team Lazarus 1m32.886s

10 Roldan Rodriguez FMSI 1m33.099s

11 Jan Carlos Sistos Bull Racing 1m34.100s