FIA GT, San Luis - Qualifying Report
A Record-Equaling Pole For Fässler

It was a great qualifying session at San Luis, with two very close battles, both in GT1 and GT2. In GT1 it was Fässler (Phoenix Corvette) versus Makowiecki (Larbre Saleen), while in GT2 Russo (Advanced Ferrari 430) and Westbrook (ProSpeed Porsche) had a very nice fight.

Even if it is very hot, the drivers managed to go faster throughout the session and give the impressive crowd a very good GT festival. Finally Marcel Fässler was quicker than Frédéric Makowiecki and Alexandre Negrao in the Vitaphone Maserati. In GT2, Mattias Russo got his first pole in front of his home crowd, while Britons Richard Westbrook and Tim Mullen set second and third quickest. A little revenge for the Falklands…

Quotes:

GT1

Marcel Fässler : “It wasn’t easy at all, it’s a difficult track and I made a few little mistakes in each lap in the first half of the session. Than I made one big mistake, but finally I managed to do one more very fast lap and that was enough for pole position. I’m very happy.”

Fässler is now co-record holder with Bernd Schneider for the number of pole-positions in one season. Both drivers scored five pole-positions.

“I’m proud of it as I know how fast Bernd is. He was my teammate for several years and I’ll send him an sms now...”

Makowiecki: “I did one FIA GT1 race so far and got pole in that and now I’m second. Of course I would have liked pole more, but I’m still very happy. I love the track very much.”

Negrao: “It’s almost a home race for me. We had some problems in qualifying this year, but on this long track in hot conditions, we got it all together. I made a little mistake in my last lap, but I don’t think pole was possible. We now will try to get 1-2 in the drivers’ championship, but Phoenix will do everything possible to get the same result. I look forward to the race.”

GT2

Russo: “I’m proud to be on pole in my own country, my first pole ever in GT2. We have learned a lot this season and this is such a great result for the team.”

Westbrook: “It was very intensive, I did fastest lap, heard on the radio that Russo was quicker, did fastest again, and same story with Russo and so on. Russo did a super job and I think I was not able to go any quicker. Our car has a weight penalty as we are two professional drivers and that is very penalizing on this track.  We will now fight for the second position in the teams’ championship, and with the fourth position of Markus (Palttala), it looks good so far. The track is good.”

Mullen: “Congratulations to Russo and to everybody here in San Luis. It’s just great. The team did a fine job as we had some damage after the free practice sessions, but they managed to get the car ready in time. We will also try to come home second in the championship.”

G2

Kuppens: “We worked hard to find the right set-up and the car is great now. I adore the track.”

Joost Custers