ILMC/ALMS, Petit Le Mans - GT(E) Qualifying

Bruni Bookends ALMS Season, Topping the BMWs

The GT qualifying session started with a penalty.  Bryan Sellers went out by mistake in the GTE-Am session, so he and his Falken Porsche were for forced to park for 3 and a half minutes.

Fast as always was Dirk Werner, jumped out to the top spot, eventually getting into the 1:18 range.  Melo challenged for Risi, but it was not enough.  Werner kept the top time until Bruni put in a couple flyers, eventually snagging the top time with a 1:18.699.  Bruni took pole earlier this season for AF Corse at Sebring, in their 430 and finished the ALMS season off with a pole here at Petit with the 458.

All said the top 10 in GT(E) were all within .1006 seconds, a much better balance that we have seen recently.

BMW ended up 2 and 3 in the session, followed by the first of the registered ALMS runners, Melo for Risi, although he was just over half a second back.  Bergmeister brought the Lizard up to 5th overall.

Corvette struggled again here, only getting up to 8th and 9th in the session.  

In a rather odd situation, the 56 BMW of Dirk Mueller was called into the pits for a consult, as he was slow on the track.  Did that make a difference to his effort?  We'll never know!

Robertson Racing meanwhile missed the session, building up the car with the assistance of the chassis from the sister car - They have tweeted though that they'll be out in morning warm-up. 

Gianmaria Bruni

"It's great to start the year in America in the lovely old lady 430 and get pole at Sebring and then come here to another wonderful track and another wonderful race and get pole in the new 458.  It's great to for the team to get both GTE poles here and we'll be looking now to beat the BMWs.  that will be very tough here, they are very fast on the straights and we are very quick through the turns."