FIA GT, Oschersleben – Qualifying Report Jetalliance Front Row The two 15 minutes FIA GT qualifying sessions were remarkably low key affairs as fluid on the track effectively halved the track time and sucked out the potential for much excitement. It says much that the most entertaining bit of the session was a Christophe Bouchut rant in the press-conference afterwards.
The grid order was determined in the first few minutes of the GT2-only first session and then it just fizzled out as the oil on the track persuaded more and more cars to stop early. Even with an extra 85kg in the #50 AF Corse Ferrari, Gianmaria Bruni needed no more than three laps to cement pole, by half a second from team mate Christian Montanari in the #51. “The team have done good work to make the car work with the weight,” said Bruni, “but I realised on my third lap that the oil or water would prevent me from going faster.”
“It’s important to start at the front,” added Montanari, “because it’s tight at the first corner and you want to get there first.” Tim Mullen claimed third for CR Scuderia; “I’m quite pleased with that,” he said. “It’s nice to come back and do well after such a difficult time at Adria. A good result tomorrow would give the team a boost, because we haven’t had much luck so far.
“But well done to Gianmaria; that was a good lap.” Andrew Kirkaldy, meanwhile, had his second off of the day after hitting a kerb and spinning into the gravel, but had just set fifth fastest time. The first non-Ferrari in GT2 was the Prospeed Competition Porsche of Richard Westbrook, but less than a second separated first to ninth and it remains to be seen who had more in reserve. The clean up delayed the start of GT1 qualifying by 20 minutes and when it began only the Citation Cup Corvette of Wolfgang Kaufmann ventured out. The #12 AT Racing C5-R had the track to itself for a full seven minutes as the remainder of the pack watched to see how it gone on.
Christophe Bouchut then came out with eight minutes remaining, followed a minute later by the others, and got a quick lap in – 1:23.878. Several others posted slower laps before Karl Wendlinger got his hot lap in; 1:23.748 for the #33 Aston Martin DBR9. Alex Muller formed the second slice of a Bouchut sandwich with 1:23.934, before improving in the final minute to deny the SRT Corvette second on the grid by three hundredths.
Bouchut didn’t improve on his first fast lap, but he was not a happy chappy; “I am really angry again. Sorry,” he began, ominously. “I sat in the car for 20 minutes waiting for the session to start with no information from the officials as to why there was a delay and then when I went to join in there was a red light at the end of the pitlane, despite there being a car out on track already. So I had to wait again and the tyre temps were all wrong as a result. “I got my fast lap in, but then my second lap was destroyed by a bloody Masarati,” he continued, by now shouting. “I always move off the racing lap when not on a fast one, but unfortunately in this series there are too many people with no respect for that rule.” The big surprise of the meeting was the #37 ACA Argentina Ferrari 550, which leapt from nowhere to fourth as the seconds ticked away. Jose Maria Lopez then improved this time to 1:24.042 on his last lap. Michael Bartels was only fifth in #1 Masarati, with Alexandre Negrao seventh in the #2. “It’s been a pretty good weekend so far,” said Wendlinger, “and the car’s going well, so I’m happy so far. Adria wasn’t good and I prefer to race with some race in the car, but we should have a good race tomorrow.” “We’re very pleased with second after missing most of free practice with gearbox problems,” said Alex Muller. “We only had pre-qualifying to set-up, but we borrowed some data from the other car and the team got it right. I’m looking forward to tomorrow.” MH | 
