FIA GT Championship

Thunderstorm ends first qualifying at Spa

After tonight’s first qualifying session of three for the weekend’s Proximus 24 Hours of Spa, the three Care Racing supported Ferrari 550 Maranellos are provisionally in 6th, 8th and 9th places on the grid. All drivers have qualified for the race and completed their obligatory “night? laps.

The 90-minute session ended prematurely when the heavens opened, although all the main runners had had an opportunity to set their quickest times before the rain started.

Christophe Bouchut, on loan to Larbre Competition from Cirtek for this race, set the fastest time of the three Ferraris in car 11, although he was far from happy with the outcome. “On my first set of soft tyres I had traffic on every lap and on my second I came across a Maserati. I didn’t lose a lot of time but it was enough. We are flat in lots of areas around the track but just not quick enough. We’ve got a good set up but the car is nowhere near as quick as it was during the test here on the 12th.”

Making his return to racing for the first time since Magny Cours at the beginning of May, Steve Zacchia proved that he had lost none of his skill behind the wheel of the Prodrive-engined Maranello. The slim-line Swiss driver, who in practice this morning had been only a few hundredths of a second off the times of the two Aston Martin DBR9s, was tasked with qualifying car 12 tonight. The 22-year-old, who won here last September in the LMES 1000 Km race, said afterwards: “I had a lot of traffic on my quickest laps but otherwise everything was okay. Above all, it is the slower Porsches which cause you problems.”

In 9th place for Russian Age Racing was Jamie Campbell-Walter. He, along with his regular LMES team mate, Nicolas Minassian, today made their debut in the Cirtek managed Ferrari, standing in for Christophe Bouchut. It was Minassian’s first time in a GT car of any sort and the Frenchman was extremely complimentary about the Ferrari. “This is one of the best GT cars of the last five years, it has won so many races and Championships. I am really pleased to be here at Spa, which is also one of the great endurance events in the calendar, and to be able to do it in the Ferrari 550 is fantastic. I’m having a great time!”

The British driver’s plans for a smooth qualifying run were thwarted this evening by both traffic and the weather. “I did three laps on my first set of tyres, all spoiled by traffic and then we decided to wait until later to have another go but that plan was messed up by the rain. I’m having a really good time though. It’s nice to be back in the FIA GT Championship and it’s good being here in a Ferrari. I reckon I’ve driven most of the cars on the grid now I just need a Maserati and an Aston Martin drive to round it off!”

Russian Age Racing will not be running in tomorrow’s third qualifying session as the team will be preparing the cars for the race. No times improved during the second night session, which ran from 2200-2330 hrs, and although the rain stopped the track was still very wet.

Combined night qualifying:

1 9 Van de Poele/Bartels/Scheider Maserati MC12 2:14.845
2 15 Bertolini/Wendlinger/Peter Maserati MC12 2:15.297
3 29 Goossens/Kox/Lamy Aston Martin DBR9 2:15.552
4 6 Longin/Kumpen/Hezemans/Bleek?n Corvette C5R 2:15.630
5 10 Babini/Biagi/Davies Maserati MC12 2:16.125
6 11 Bouchut/Gardel/Mollekens/Vosse Ferrari 550 2:16.226
7 28 Brabham/Turner/Sarrazin Aston Martin DBR9 2:16.383
8 12 Bryner/Bouvy/Calderari/Zacchia Ferrari 550 2:17.839
9 17 JCW/Fomenko/Minassian/Vasiliev Ferrari 550 2:18.693
10 8 Erdos/Newton/Mallock/Bennett Saleen S7 2:19.480

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