FIA GT Championship

Jetalliance and CR Scuderia take FIA GT poles

© Planetlemans – Marcel ten Caat

It looked like Allan Simonsen gave Gigawave MotorSport its first ever FIA GT pole position this afternoon at Zolder. In an exciting qualifying session the Dane beat all his rivals and rewarded his team with the best possible grid position for tomorrow’s race. But hours later things changed…

The GT1 Qualifying session started with the three Maserati MC12s going out on the track at almost the same moment, followed by the two Saleen S7Rs. Andrea Bertolini was the first to post a fastest lap, taking the provisional pole in 1:26.652.

Bertolini had just improved his lap time again to a 1:26.357 when he went off at high speed at the Bianchi corner (turn 4). The Italian got out of his car, which was buried under the tyre barriers, and walked away from the wreck. Fortunately the session was not interrupted.

Moments after Bertolini went off it was Marcel Fässler taking over the pole position in his Phoenix Racing Corvette C6.R after improving Bertolini’s time and setting a 1:26.266. His provisional pole time would not last though as Allan Simonsen blasted through setting a 1:25.810. Mike Hezemans was the first to react to the Gigawave MotorSport attack, setting a 1:26.139 on his first flying lap and taking second in the #6 Corvette.

Wendlinger then posted the third fastest time, 0.424s from pole. The Austrian stayed on the throttle for another fast lap but despite getting closer and making it an Aston 1-2 his time was still not enough to take pole position.

Earlier on the GT2 qualifying session turned out to be a real thriller. After almost running invisible in the practice and pre-qualifying session the Prospeed Competition Porsches were right at the front as the session progressed and battling it out with the Ferrari F430s. Biagi was the first driver to set a real fast time in his Ferrari, but his time was quickly beaten by Marc Lieb in the #61 Porsche, the gap just 0.001s though. Collard then bettered his team mates lap time by clocking a 1:30.495.

With seven minutes remaining in the GT2 session CR Scuderia’s Tim Mullen lost the left rear wheel of his Ferrari at turn 4 (Bianchi corner) and went off into the gravel. While his session had effectively ended team mate Andrew Kirkaldy went for it again and improved the fastest lap time to 1:30.382. Stefan Mücke in the Aston Martin Racing Vantage V8 had meanwhile gotten into fourth place. As the checkered flag came out it was still the CR Scuderia #56 on pole, ahead of the two ProSpeed Porsches.

UPDATE: Several hours after the qualifying session had ended the Stewards of the Meeting decided to impose penalties on the Gigawave MotorSport Aston Martin, the Larbre Competition Saleen S7R as well as the ACA Argentina Ferrari 550 Maranello. The Gigawave Aston and Larbre Saleen were dropped ten places on the grid for not slowing down under a yellow flag situation (after the Bertolini accident). The PK Carsport Saleen was also reported for the same fact, but it was cleared.
The Ferrari 550 Maranello was sentenced to start from the back of the grid after it failed to comply with the technical regulations.

Qualifying Result:

1 – 10 – GT1 – Gigawave MotorSport (Simonsen) – Aston Martin DBR9 – 1:25.810 – PENALTY, LOSES TEN PLACES
2 – 33 – GT1 – Jetalliance Racing (Wendlinger) – Aston Martin DBR9 – 1:26.029 – WILL START FROM POLE
3 – 6 – GT1 – Phoenix Racing (Hezemans) – Corvette C6.R – 1:26.139
4 – 5 – GT1 – Phoenix Racing (Fässler) – Corvette C6.R – 1:26.266
5 – 37 – GT1 – Escuderia ACA Argentina (Lopez) – Ferrari 550 Maranello – 1:26.280 – PENALTY, TO START FROM THE BACK
6 – 1 – GT1 – Vitaphone Racing Team (Bertolini) – Maserati MC12 – 1:26.357
7 – 3 – GT1 – Sellleslagh Racing Team (Maassen) – Corvette C6.R – 1:26.702
8 – 7 – GT1 – Larbre Competition (Vosse/Franchi) – Saleen S7R – 1:26.818 – PENALTY, LOSES TEN PLACES
9 – 4 – GT1 – PK Carsport (Kumpen) – Saleen S7R – 1:26.831
10 – 17 – GT1 – Team Vitasystems (Lamy) – Maserati MC12 – 1:26.882
11 – 2 – GT1 – Vitaphone Racing Team (Negrao) – Maserati MC12 – 1:27.717
12 – 56 – GT2 – CR Scuderia (Kirkaldy) – Ferrari F430 GT2 – 1:30.382
13 – 61 – GT2 – ProSpeed Competition (Collard) – Porsche 997 GT3 RSR – 1:30.495
14 – 60 – GT2 – ProSpeed Competition (Lieb) – Porsche 997 GT3 RSR – 1:30.579
15 – 164 – G2 – Aston Martin Racing (Mücke) – Aston Martin Vantage V8 – 1:30.826
16 – 77 – GT2 – BMS Scuderia Italia (Malucelli) – Ferrari F430 GT2 – 1:30.870
17 – 95 – GT2 – AE PeCom Racing Team (Russo) – Ferrari F430 GT2 – 1:30.967
18 – 50 – GT2 – AF Corse (Vilander) – Ferrari F430 GT2 – 1:31.130
19 – 51 – GT2 – AF Corse (Biagi) – Ferrari F430 GT2 – 1:31.280
20 – 62 – GT2 – Scuderia Ecosse (Babini) – Ferrari F430 GT2 – 1:31.313
21 – 55 – GT2 – CR Scuderia (Mullen) – Ferrari F430 GT2 – 1:31.488
22 – 78 – GT2 – BMS Scuderia Italia (Camathias) – Ferrari F430 GT2 – 1:31.750
23 – 101 – G2 – Belgian Racing (Leinders) – Gillet Vertigo – 1:31.971
24 – 57 – GT2 – Kessel Racing (Moser) – Ferrari F430 GT2 – 1:32.707