FIA GT3 Championship

Front row for Hexis and Alpina in GT3 Qualifying

© DPPI

Honours in the two qualifying sessions held today at Paul Ricard HTTT for rounds 9 & 10 of the 2009 FIA GT3 European Championship were shared by the Alpina BMW Alpina B6 GT3 and the Hexis Racing AMR Aston Martin DBRS9.

Qualifying for Round 9

In the first 20-minute session it was Jens Kingsmann who claimed the maiden FIA GT3 pole position for himself, Alpina and for the BMW Alpina B6 in the last few minutes. The early pace was set by Phil Quaife in the #56 CRS Racing Ferrari 430 Scuderia and Dino Lunardi in the #18 Mühlner Motorsport Porsche 997 GT3 Cup S, but with five minutes of the session remaining Thomas Accary made a bid to claim his second pole position of the season only to be beaten into second place by Klingmann by just 0.013 seconds just before the chequered flag.

This afternoon’s race will see a BMW Alpina and Aston Martin front row, with Dino Lunardi’s Porsche lining up on row 2 with the Audi R8 LMS of Nicolas Armindo.

Qualifying for Round 10

The second 20-minute qualifying session also ended with a BMW Alpina / Aston Martin front row but this time it was the Hexis Racing Aston Martin of Frederic Makowiecki that topped the timesheets, 0.429 seconds ahead of the Claudia Hürtgen’s BMW Alpina.

Once again it was a Porsche that made the early running in the session with Martin Ragginger in the #22 Trackspeed Porsche 997. The Austrian’s time was being challenged by Diego Alessi in the Marc Sourd Racing Corvette but with five minutes to go Makowiecki set the fastest lap of the session and improved the time further as the chequered flag was waved. Hürtgen was able to maintain her front row position, with Alessi and Ragginger filling the row 2 places. Kevin Estre in the MP Racing BMW Alpina was 5th fastest and will line up on row 3 with Jonathan Hirschi in the #2 Matech GT Racing Ford GT.

Round 9 of the 2009 FIA GT3 European Championship will take place at 17:30 today, with Round 10 due to start at 16:45 on Sunday 4 October.