Eric Gené has assumed the lead of the championship despite a mixed qualifying session at the Monlau Motorsport driver’s home circuit. The 18-year-old managed to qualify fifth on the grid in Spain on his final flying lap, after multiple track limits violations forced him to set a safe lap in the session.

Gené made it into Q2 after one of his earlier laps was reinstated by a stewards review, and for a short time it looked like both of the championship front-runners could be fighting from the back of the grid, with rival Marco Butti’s technical issues leaving him down in 16th.

“It was really right. With 27 drivers here and a very high level. I have 30kg (of compensation weight) which makes quite a difference as it’s a really long circuit. There were lots of track limits on my side, but at the end we managed to do a lap and qualify P5, so I’m quite happy about that,” said Gené.

Regarding his reinstated Q1 lap, Gené added: “The team were telling me the lap was deleted in Q1, but I know it was impossible for it to get deleted as I was in, so they talked with the stewards. It was still really close as it was a 1:50.7.”

With Gené’s close championship rival Butti down in 16th, Gené still says the situation is too close to call, with team-mate Brickley now just nine points behind and starting ahead of him on the grid, and with the two Clairet brothers also in the top ten.

“Marco is out, but Jenson is in, so this championship is really close. It looks at the moment it’s between the Monlaus and the Clairets, but never forget Marco is still there, he’s a very fast driver and he can manage to get to the front.”