FIA GT Monza - GT Qualifying Report

Alex Muller and Lukas Lichtner-Hoyer claimed pole for Sunday’s FIA GT race after a topsy turvy dry–wet-dry qualifying session on Saturday afternoon.

Muller snatched the top spot on the very last lap of the drying qualifying session in the #36 Jetalliance Aston Martin DBR9, his last gasp 1:49.258 grabbing the advantage from Christophe Bouchut (SRT Corvette C6.R and Xandi Negrao (Vitaphone Racing Maserati MC12) both of these contenders also pulling out great efforts on their last laps.

Until then, it looked as though a GT2 car would start from the outright pole position for the first time since 2001. Emmanuel Collard (Prospeed 997 GT3 RSR) had gone quickest in the preceeding, dry GT2 session, and the circuit was too wet for the GT1 cars to better his time until the very last minute of the session.

Muller said: "It was down to a mixture of taking it easy out the back of the circuit where it was wet, and pushing hard on the parts that were dry. Nobody expected me to be in P1 today. That’s why this pole is even more gratifying.” And how was it all done? “Conditions were very difficult because the track still had some rather wet patches. But then I thought – maximum attack – and it worked out.”

Marcel Fassler's Phoenix Corvette and Allan Simonsen's Gigawave Aston sandwiched Christian Montonari's GT2 AF Corse Ferrari 430 in fifth and seventh places, ahead of a string of eight GT2 cars.

Andrea Bertolini could only qualify his Vitaphone Maserati 16th, while Karl Wendlinger (Jetalliance Aston), Fabrizio Gollin (Phoenix Corvette), and Anthony Kumpen's Peka Saleen were left at the bottom of the timesheet after an accident at the beginning of the session.

Kumpen locked up under braking and smashed into Gollin, wiping out both cars. Wendlinger then arrived on the scene and destroyed his right front tyre on their debris.

Karl Wendlinger: “Really annoying. But I’m ready to charge from behind, I’ll try to fight my way through the GT2 pack as swiftly as possible tomorrow. But it won’t be easy for sure.”

The #111 ARC Bratislava Saleen of Sean Edwards set the best time in both G2 and the Citation Cup but the Englishman lost his time after pitting after the pit lane had closed.  That elevated the Silverstone Citation Cup winning #12 AT Racing Corvette C5-R of Wolfgang Kaufmann to Citation Cup pole with Renaud Kuppens taking the G2 pole in the Gillet Vertigo.