It was the turn of the 1989 Minardi MN189 F1 car, driven by Ian Schofield, to top the times in the second qualifying session, crossing the timing beam in 41.195 sec – 0.6 sec quicker than his previous qualifier. After noting the lack of grip in the earlier sessions, Franco Scribante went exploring the limits and took out the corner markers at Turn 7, resulting in his time being deleted.
Notably, Andre Bezuidenhout emerged as the fastest tin-top racer and second fastest overall in his 1974 Porsche 911 RSR Martini with a time of 46.447 sec – even though the car isn’t running properly at this stage.
“We’ve got a problem with the turbo and not getting enough boost at the moment,” Bezuidenhout said. “We should be two seconds faster, so we’ve got a lot of time to make up. The road definitely has less grip this year and there’s a lot more bumps, so it’s quite different.”
Enzo Kuun powered the 5.0-litre V8 Lola to third place (47.151 sec), ahead of Rui Campos (47.799 sec), Chris Knezovich (47.835 sec) and Robert Wolk (48.597 sec). Seventh to 11th were separated by a mere 0.6 sec, with Johan de Bruyn in 7th (49.350 sec) ahead of Graeme Nathan (49.781 sec), Peter Lindenberg (49.911 sec), Josh Dovey (49.967 sec) and Charles Arton (49.980 sec).
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Release compiled by Colin Mileman (082-897-6145 colin@milemanmedia.co.za)
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