After an 18-month break, the five-round season will run from January to March 2023, with up to 32 drivers on the grid in each of the ten races aiming for a share of the €10,000 prize pot. 20 of these will be “permanent” drivers, qualifying through the three-round, three-week shootout season.
The Nurburgring Grand Prix circuit hosted this week’s action in the Shootout, itself making a debut in the series, and it was Gianmarco Fiduci who’d set the fastest time in an exceptionally tight qualifying session.
Fiduci beat newcomer Yuvel Rosen by just under a hundredth of a second, with the entire 31-car grid – including experienced names like Florian Hasse, Jack Keithley, Alessandro Ottaviani, and 2018 champion Bence Banki – covered by six-tenths of a second.
Experience seemed to count for little though on the opening lap, with Ottaviani jumping the start and receiving a drive-through penalty. Keithley’s first lap was even worse, ending up on the outside of almost every incident. He’d eventually end the lap in 30th, having started seventh, courtesy of the gravel trap on the outside of the final turn.
Though it was Audis that dominated the grid, the breakaway front five included two Hondas as Petr Pliska and Max Pfeifer just about kept in touch with Fiduci, Rosen, and Barna, while building a small gap to Banki in sixth.