FIA GT Championship

Phoenix Carsport and AF Corse grab Adria poles

© DPPI

For the third time in as many sessions the Phoenix Carsport Corvette C6.R and AF Corse Ferrari 430 GT were on top of the timing sheets at Adria. This time however it was during qualifying which meant both cars will start tomorrow’s night race from the front of their classes.

Marcel Fässler needed only four laps to set the fastest lap time in GT1, a 1:11.602. This time was also the fastest time looking at all the combined times from free practice, pre-qualifying and qualifying. Exactly two tenths of a second behind Fässler it was Italian Andrea Bartolini who qualified the number 1 Vitaphone Maserati MC12 on the front row. Karl Wendlinger rounded up the top three as he just missed out on a front row position, being just 0.013 seconds slower than Bertolini.

Gianmaria Bruni took his Ferrari 430 GT around the 2.702 km long circuit in 1:15.094. Despite being almost half a second quicker than pre-qualifying the gap to Emmanuel Collard in the Prospeed Competition Porsche 997 GT3 RSR was very small. The French works Porsche driver managed to put his car only 0.014 seconds behind the Italian. Third fastest was Bruni’s team mate Thomas Biagi who put his AF Corse Ferrari in third place on the GT2 grid.

In G2 the lonely Gillet Vertigo, driven by Bas Leinders, set a 1:18.443, just over a second slower than the last classified GT2 car. The Saleen S7R of Andrea Piccini and Jos Menten did not take part in qualifying.

UPDATE: No fewer than 10 cars crossed the white line with all four wheels and their times were under investigation after the qualifying session. Hours after the session had ended the stewards of the meeting decided to give car numbers 3, 4, 5, 10, 15, 36, 37, 57, 59, 62 a penalty which meant their fastest lap time was cancelled. Marcel Fässlers second best time was still good enough for pole position, further down the field several cars lost positions.

All qualifying times (after penalties):

1 - #5 Phoenix Carsport - Corvette C6.R - 1:11.731
2 - #1 Vitaphone Racing Team - Maserati MC12 - 1:11.802
3 - #33 Jetalliance Racing - Aston Martin DBR9 - 1:11.815
4 - #2 Vitaphone Racing Team - Maserati MC12 - 1:11.916
5 - #6 Phoenix Carsport - Corvette C6.R - 1:12.058
6 - #3 Selleslagh Racing Team - Corvette C6.R - 1:12.176
7 - #10 Gigawave Motosport - Aston Martin DBR9 - 1:12.369
8 - #37 Escuderia ACA Argentina - Ferrari 550 - 1:12.370
9 - #7 Larbre Competition - Saleen S7R - 1:12:408
10 - #15 JMB Racing - Maserati MC12 - 1:12.838
11 - #36 Jetalliance Racing - Aston Martin DBR9 - 1:12.864
12 - #4 PK Carsport - Saleen S7R - 1:13.436
13 - #50 AF Corse - Ferrari 430 GT - 1:15.094
14 - #61 Prospeed Competition - Porsche 997 GT3 RSR - 1:15.108
15 - #12 AT-Racin - Corvette C5-R - 1:15.110
16 - #51 AF Corse - Ferrari 430 GT - 1:15.394
17 - #95 AE PeCom Racing Team - Ferrari 430 GT - 1:15.522
18 - #77 BMS Scuderia Italia - Ferrari 430 GT - 1:15.631
19 - #78 BMS Scuderia Italia - Ferrari 430 GT - 1:15.759
20 - #56 CR Scuderia - Ferrari 430 GT - 1:15.826
21 - #55 CR Scuderia - Ferrari 430 GT - 1:15.869
22 - #62 Scuderia Ecosse - Ferrari 430 GT - 1:15.950
23 - #57 Kessel Racing - Ferrari 430 GT - 1:16.040
24 - #60 Prospeed Competition - Porsche 997 GT3 RSR - 1:16.041
25 - #59 Trackspeed Racing - Porsche 997 GT3 RSR - 1:16.417
26 - #101 Belgian Racing - Gillet Vertigo - 1:18.443