With the championship title on the line, Norbert Kiss has started the weekend in the best way claiming his ninth pole position of the season.
Dominant form was the talk of Qualifying 1 at Misano Circuit for the final round of the 2021 season as Kiss kept rivals Sascha Lenz and Jochen Hahn behind. The Hungarian had looked to be on the back foot at the start of the session, only progressing through to Super Pole with the sixth fastest lap.
Having solved the GPS issue in the brief pause between sessions, Kiss managed to return to predicted form and blew the rest of the competition away with his 2:01.558. Lenz and Hahn kept him honest, with the pair only four tenths off – Lenz only two – but it was the start position Kiss was looking for ahead of the race in which he could secure the championship title.
Kiss only needs to score 14 points in Race 1 to become the 2021 champion, whilst closest rivals Lenz and Adam Lacko need to outscore Kiss to keep the fight going into Race Two. If Kiss wins Race 1 or finishes second, he will become 2021 champion.
Antonio Albacete will start just outside of the top three in fourth having outqualified the rapid Stephanie Halm. Halm progressed through to Super Pole with the second fastest time of qualifying, only beaten by Lenz at the end of the 20 minutes.
Behind Halm, René Reinert will start sixth in front of other championship contender Lacko in seventh. Lacko has a lot of work to do this afternoon to keep Kiss from becoming champion.
A stellar performance from Lukas Hahn in qualifying progressed the German into Super Pole where he took Goodyear Cup pole position, eighth overall. He will start Race 1 ahead of Anthony Janiec and Jamie Anderson, who rounded off the Super Pole top ten.
Anderson was lucky to make it through to Super Pole to start second in Goodyear Cup after he forced a delay to the start of the session replacing the oil pump in his power steering. Throughout qualifying, he had multiple lap times deleted due to track limits, only just making it into the top ten at the chequered flag.
Steffen Faas takes third in Goodyear Cup, 11th overall, whilst Goodyear Cup leader Shane Brereton starts from 14th on the grid, only ahead of Aliyyah Koloc. Luckily for Brereton, his closest championship rival, Calvet, only starts one place ahead of him, behind André Kursim.