LMS Monza - Qualifying Report
Peugeot, Porsche, Aston And Ferrari

There were no huge surprises in the two quick fire qualifying sessions as Nicolas Minassian and Pedro Lamy simply demolished the challenge from the Audi R10s.

Minassian emerged from the session with pole position in the #7 Peugeot 908 with 1:31.470 – for comparison the pole setting time here last year, again by Minassian’s Peugeot (on the 908’s debut) was 1:34.503)

Lamy came up with a best effort that was half a second slower, still in the 1:31s though whilst Dindo Capello could do no better than a 1:33.193, 1.7 seconds down on the pole man.

Lamy though had been baulked on his fastest (potential) run by the Essex Racing Porsche, a chop from Elgaard costing the #8 Peugeot what could have been a polesetting lap.

Nic Minassian: “Peugeot have done a good job, they know what they are doing. The car is much more reliable so now we can shoot for pace. The potential was always there but we were having to work hard on problems before and now we can go for the speed.

“In the years before I used to look at them (the Audis) and see how far they were ahead (of me) so it is good to be there now.”

Dindo Capello: “With such a big gap between the Audis and the Peugeot it is difficult to say one area where they are faster than us. We have to catch up and improve. We are going as quickly as we can. Our best practice lap was within a tenth of our qualifying lap and even if I hadn’t got traffic we could only have been 3 tenths or so quicker.”

The early minutes of qualifying had seen the two Courage Orecas contesting provisional pole position with Jamie Campbell Walter’s #14 Creation AIM. The session would end with the #6 Oreca machine (Panis) the quickest of these three ahead of JCW and Soheil Ayari – All three though would be leapfrogged by the Charouz Lola Aston Martin, the #10 coupe bettering the remainder of the petrol-fuelled pack by more than a second (but 8 tenths down on the slowest of the diesels.

There were incidents though for both Campbell Walter and Ayari as both pushed hard. Ayari’s moment was a trip through the gravel on the outside of the Parabolica, the #5 car continuing seemingly undamaged.

The Creation man though had an altogether more dramatic exit from the session, the #14 car going off and hard into the barriers at the second chicane, the car suffering substantial damage and Campbell Walter taking a trip to the Medical Centre for a check up.

(Update) The Creation hit the kerbs hard and launched a metre into the air, the car coming down hard and impacting the barriers. Campbell Walter has gone to hospital for a back scan after apparently suffering some back pain, possible ligament and muscle damage. He is though basically OK. The #14 car though will be withdrawn, as much because Jamie will be unavailable to drive as for the damage.

LMP2 started out as a potentially interesting contest with several runners finding extra pace. Both Embassy Racing cars improved their weekend form considerably (into the 1:40s) and the Trading Performance Zytek finally looked to have found some form. The top six cars in this increasingly competitive class though were anchored by the RML MG Lola, Thomas Erdos getting back to something like form after a terrible start to the season for the team.

Michael Vergers was just ahead of the #25 car in his #32 Barazi Epsilon Zytek with Andrea Bellichi fourth fastest in the #33 Lola coupe.

That left the top three looking all very Porsche RS Spyder shaped, the second and third fastest cars separated by just a tenth of a second, Lammers leading Elgaard.

Class pole position though only ever looked like going one way and that was to Jos Verstappen, the Van Merksteijn Motorsport man pulling a lap of 1:36.842 out of the bag, a full second faster than Lammers.

“Our car is good on the short tracks but the balance is good, just what you need for Parabolica. That’s very important where you can gain time under braking. That’s what I have spent time on getting right in practice. It was a good lap, no mistakes and that was the key.”

The WR Zytek meanwhile did not appear during the session.

In GT1 the now familiar late session run from team Modena didn’t pay off, Olivier Beretta emerging from the 15 minutes of GT class action with a lap in 1:44.102, almost three tenths ahead of Tomas Enge’s best effort.

Olivier Beretta: “The team have made another jump since last year and it’s great to be racing back in Europe. For qualifying the car felt good and I got a clear lap so of course we’re pleased with that.”

GT2 saw another fine qualifying run from Virgo Motorsport, Rob Bell clinching pole position with a 1:49.006, Alex Davison not quite managing to get onto terms in the #77 Porsche.

Rob Bell: “We were on the podium here last year and its great to be back to try to reward those that have supported us since then. The car and the tyres were pretty good in the session and we’ve come out of the session in the best possible position.”

Alex Davison: “We’re ripped to be so close to the pace of the Ferrari after Barcelona where we struggled a little bit more. Monza seems to suit us much better and the team has been working hard between the two race meetings to close the gap.”

Pierre Kaffer was the only other man into the 1:49s with Richard Lietz fourth.