The 25-year-old Australian had never raced at the twisty, undulating 3.404km circuit before and used the three, 30-minute practice sessions to learn the track, in the process posting the 12th, 12th and 16th best times respectively. Heading into qualifying the lad from Blackwater’s best was 1m22.401s in the third session.

 

“On my second run in Practice 3 we tried a few changes which didn’t really work,” he said. “I flatspotted the right front into Turn One and that was that.”

 

With new tyres Martin lowered that mark to 1m20.211s in the 15-minute Group A qualifying session, however his time was still 0.657s adrift of pacesetter Max Wissel (FC Basel), who posted 1m19.544s, and only the 7th fastest in the session.

 

“I had the same problem (flatspotting) on my fourth flying lap in qualifying,” said Martin. “Admittedly the tyres are past their best then anyway in terms of a one-off quick lap time, but I was pushing hard trying to get into the top four.”

 

“We came here with quite a different setup to what we have been running and unfortunately it hasn’t really worked for Craig (Dolby, Martin’s Alan Docking Racing teammate) and I. The setup hasn’t helped us the way we expected, but with no testing you don’t find these things out until practice.”

 

“We will change the car back overnight and see how it goes.“

 

By virtue of Wissel’s time being quicker than Group B fast man Sebastien Bourdais’s 1m19.734, Martin will line up 13th on the grid, with the other five slowest cars from Group A on the same side of the grid.

 

Pole position went to Bourdais in the pole shootout of the top eight knockout qualifying phase, while championship rivals Craig Dolby (Tottenham Hotspur) and Liverpool FC’s Adrian Valles will start from 10th and 14th, after qualifying 5th and 7th in Group B.

 

Sunday sees two races of 44 minutes plus one lap duration, with compulsory pitstops in each. While the top six cars will contest the five lap Super Final where the winner takes home €100,000.

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