FIA GT Championship

FIA GT Brno Qualifying: Peter on pole

At what is effectively his home race, Philipp Peter, of Austria, claimed pole position for the second time this season. His nr 16 JMB Racing Maserati MC 12 set a time of 1:56.322 around the challenging, winding Brno circuit, in a close qualifying session which saw the top five qualify within one second.

© FIA GT

“I have a lot of friends, sponsors and family here, so I am delighted to start from pole, for the second time this year,” Peter said “I’m also happy to have the team’s second car up there alongside me, especially after Karl’s crash yesterday. The team did a great job to fix it. I love the track, I love the car and I love the tyres Pirelli has brought us, so we will see what happens tomorrow.”

The Automotodrom Brno proved to be perfectly adapted to the Maserati cars, with all four qualifying in the top five, and claiming the top three positions of the grid for the first time. Andrea Bertolini qualified the nr 15 JMB car in second place, thanking the JMB and Maserati mechanics for working through the night to repair the car after yesterday’s crash. The leading nr 9 Vitaphone Maserati was third, with Bartels and Scheider keen to win tomorrow, the team having claimed the 2004 victory with the Saleen S7. The nr 6 GLPK Carsport Corvette was fourth, Anthony Kumpen being relatively pleased with his time. The Lamborghini Murciélago was sixth and the Larbre Competition Ferrari 550 Maranello seventh.

Gruppe M takes fifth pole of the season

British team GruppeM continued its domination of the GT2 category when Marc Lieb claimed pole position in the nr66 Porsche, despite carrying the maximum penalty weight. “This is definitely one of my lucky circuits !” Lieb commented. “I had my first FIA GT race here in Brno three years ago, and I won that race with Stephane Ortelli. It’s one of my favourite tracks too, and I’m happy to be on pole. We’ve made a big step since Imola and the car is going really well on new tyres. Like everyone else we are struggling a bit on old tyres as the circuit is so slippery. It’s not easy, but I think we’ve got a really good race car, and I’m looking forward to tomorrow.” Second place went to the nr 63 Renauer Motorsport Team Porsche, qualified by Wolfgang Kaufmann and shared with Manfred Jurasz and Petr Valek, after the nr 88 GruppeM car lost its morning times due to ride-height problems and could not catch up in the hotter afternoon session, having to be content with third in GT2.

Good performance for Balfe Motorsport in G2

The only G2 car this weekend, the Balfe Motorsport will start just behind the leading Gruppe M car for tomorrow’s grid, Shaun Balfe and Jamie Derbyshire being pleased with the performance of the car, despite it being a new circuit for the Mosler MT 900. “We started the weekend on the back foot, after we had problems in the first free practice session and had to sacrifice most of that. When you’re learning the track, it’s difficult to make the time up. Even in the last session, we were still changing the car with a couple of minutes to go. I’m actually quite happy, and will go back to the hotel feeling quite good and looking forward to the race,” Balfe said.

Top Eight GT1

1 16 GT1 Peter/Buncombe/Rusinov JMB Racing Maserati MC12 GT1 1:56.322
2 15 GT1 Bertolini/Wendlinger JMB Racing Maserati MC12 GT1 1:56.686
3 9 GT1 Bartels/Scheider Vitaphone Maserati MC12 GT1 1:56.700
4 6 GT1 Longin/Kumpen/Hezemans GLPK Carsport Corvette C5R 1:56.920
5 10 GT1 Babini/Biagi Vitaphone Maserati MC12 GT1 1:57.288
6 13 GT1 Kox/Morbidelli Reiter Lamborghini Murcielago R-GT 1:57.7631.441
7 11 GT1 Lamy/Gardel Larbre Competition Ferrari 550 Maranello 1:57.931
8 2 GT1 Deletraz/Piccini GPC Sport Ferrari 575 Maranello GTC 1:58.050

Top Eight GT2 / G2

1 66 GT2 Lieb/Rockenfeller GruppeM Porsche 996 GT3 RSR 2:02.664
2 101 G2 Balfe/Derbyshire Balfe Mosler MT900R 2:05.224
3 63 GT2 Kaufmann/Jurasz/Valek Renauer Porsche 996 GT3 RS 2:05.554
4 88 GT2 Collard/Sugden GruppeM Porsche 996 GT3 RSR 14 2:05.744
5 86 GT2 Lemeret/Deman GPC Sport Ferrari 360 Modena 2:06.740
6 57 GT2 Konopka/Studenic ARC Porsche 996 GT3 RSR 2:07.287
7 74 GT2 Moccia/Busnelli Ebimotors Porsche 996 GT3 RSR 14 2:08.378
8 69 GT2 Ried/Ried Proton Porsche 996 GT3 RS 2:09.717

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