2025-07-18
Qualifying Completed – Drivers Had to Show Their Skills in the Rain
From early Friday morning, the “Aurum 1006 km powered by Hankook” race track in Palanga was buzzing with race cars – all part of the build-up to the most important event of the day: the qualifying sessions. During these sessions, teams determined their starting positions for Saturday’s race.
The first laps of qualifying were completed on a dry track, but soon it began to drizzle, eventually turning into a downpour. Although two 40-minute qualifying sessions were scheduled, once the rain started, the track emptied – only those teams that still needed to log times for their second drivers remained. Teams qualify for the “Super Pole” session based on the lowest combined lap time of both drivers.
The fastest team in qualifying was Bio-Circle & HSG by SWAG – Karolis Jovaiša and Egidijus Gražys posted a combined time of 2 min 15.455 sec. In second place, also racing an Audi, was Stokex Circle K Miles Plus – Dominykas Raudonis and Arūnas Gečiauskas with a time of 2 min 17.137 sec. Third was STATETA BRO & VEESLA by AIBE, with drivers Adam Christodoulou and Daan Arrow clocking 2 min 18.151 sec.
OVOKO by D2D and RD Signs Šiauliai placed fourth and fifth respectively, trailing third place by less than half a second.
The team order remained unchanged in the “Super Pole” session, and the fastest lap on the wet track was once again posted by Karolis Jovaiša, who was dubbed Lithuania’s new “Rain Man” during the press conference. His lap time: 1 min 15.603 sec.
“Probably no one is surprised that we chose Karolis Jovaiša for the Super Pole run. We used to come here just to have a good time, but this year we came to win. Of course, tomorrow there’s still a lot of work to be done,” said Mindaugas Valiūnas, team principal of Bio-Circle & HSG by SWAG.
Lithuanians Back on Top After a Break
This year’s qualifying was special in another way – it marked the first time in three years that a Lithuanian team took the top spot in qualifying.
“It’s great that Lithuanians won the qualifying. Of course, it would be even better if they repeated that tomorrow, but races are unpredictable, so good luck to everyone,” said Minister of Transport Eugenijus Sabutis, who presented the trophies. He also noted that he had heard racers’ feedback about improving the track surface quality.
Race organizer Darius Jonušis thanked the minister for continuing the long-standing trophy presentation tradition: “In endurance racing, qualifying doesn’t have a huge impact, but we’ve had this tradition for over twenty years that the Minister of Transport presents this cup.”
Photos by Andrius Laucius