FIA GT, Oschersleben – Qualifying Report
A Good Day For Muller & Trackspeed

The GT2 field went out first to qualify, as always, with the session beginning under leaden skies and not long after a brief shower swept across the circuit. This meant that the track surface was not fully dry at the beginning of the session, and left teams with the dilemma of going out early on a clear, but not optimal, track, or waiting and risk encountering rain.

Matias Russo and Kenneth Heyer were two who made the decision to go out early, with the #95 Pecom Racing Ferrari 430 setting the early pace – 1:30.326. Heyer’s best in the #78 BMS 430, meanwhile, was 1:32.305 at this stage.

Martin Ragginger then ventured out in the #97 Brixia Racing Porsche and immediately went faster in all three sectors; lowering the target time to 1:28.803. Russo improved his own time to 1:29.836.

As the session approached the halfway point, most of the cars had decided that they could wait no longer and were on track. Manu Collard briefly went third with 1:30.570 in the championship-leading #60 Prospeed Porsche, but then tumbled down the order as others went faster than the ballast laden 997. His best would only be four-tenths quicker, meaning a last-row start alongside Heyer.

Jörg Bergmeister was smooth as you like in the #59 Trackspeed Porsche and turned the sector times pink as he went faster than anyone else, on his way to a 1:28.673. Ragginger, meanwhile, was clearly driving at the limit as he sought to improve his time, going onto the grass in the process. He would eventually improve to second with 1:28.803, but not before JB had lowered pole to 1:28.606.

The final four minutes saw lots of improvement and a constant reshuffling of the order, but pole was unthreatened.

Gimmi Bruni in the #50 AF Corse 430 was top Ferrari in third, with Andrew Kirkaldy fifth in the #56 CRS car. Just 1.3s covered the top ten GT2 cars.

“I was supposed to be on holiday this week, but got the call on Wednesday to go with Trackspeed,” said Bergmeister. “It’s great to be on pole and great for these guys as it’s their first.”

With two GT1 cars undergoing engine changes – the #13 Full Speed Saleen and the #44 Matech Ford – the remaining ten cars took to the track several minutes later.

Bert Longin kicked things off with a 1:25.781 in the #3 SRT Corvette, but Alex Müller was on it from the start and immediately lowered that time to 1:24.781 in the #2 Vitaphone Maserati.

Michael Bartels joined in soon afterwards, but his time was half a second off his teammates time, who then improved to 1:24.546.

Adam Lacko was the first of the K Plus K drivers on track and up to fifth with1:25.934 before being joined by Karl Wendlinger in the #14. All eyes were on the Austrian and he set the second fastest sector en route to…1:24.865; only second fastest. And that was as fats as he would go.

Lacko improved to 1:25.291 in the #18 Saleen, but Xavier Maassen pushed him back down to fifth with a 1:25.160 in the #19 LAA Corvette.

The session fizzled out, with nearly all cars having pitted by the end.

“It’s great to get pole at my and the team’s home race,” said a happy Alex Müller. “The challenge now is to keep the Saleen behind me at the start, as it’s still got more power.”

MH