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First pole position for Thomas Biagi and Dirk Müller |
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Saturday, 24 March 2007 |
Two new pole men for the FIA GT Championship! Thomas Biagi claimed his first FIA GT pole position in the first round of 2007, setting a time of 1:31.339 in an extremely close qualifying session around the 4.318 km Zhuhai International Circuit.
"I am very happy. The team did a great job. I think tomorrow's race will be very tough, as it will be our first real two hour race. We did a two hour race in 2005 at Istanbul but that was just an one-off. This will be the first real two hour race. We will try to do our best." said Biagi.
The Italian driver, in his no 1 Vitaphone Maserati MC 12, was just 5
thousandths of a second ahead of Mike Hezemans in the no. 5 Carsport
Holland Corvette C6, who was in turn 20 thousandths ahead of his former
team-mate Anthony Kumpen in the no. 4 PK Carsport Corvette C5.
Mike Hezemans: "I am very happy. We came here with almost no testing,
just 20 laps. The car worked just fine. If we have rain tomorrow then I
think it will be good for us."
Hezemans' former teammate Anthony Kumpen said: "It is not possible
under the new race format to have three drivers sharing one car
anymore. I am happy to be here sitting next to Mike because we are
racing an old car, but it is still good enough to be third on the grid.
The team is very good, they rebuilt the car completely. We hope our
good run continues. The car won here in 2005, it is not tiring to drive
so we have a good chance."
Reigning Champion Andrea Bertolini, in the Scuderia Playteam Sarafree
Maserati MC 12, claimed a place on the second row of the starting grid
with a time of 1:31.551 - meaning the top four were within two tenths.
Proving that this is a real Corvette circuit, Philipp Peter was fifth
with the PSI car, ahead of leading Aston Martin DBR9, the nr 23 Aston
Martin Racing BMS car of Fabio Babini.
In GT2, AF Corse Motorola finally broke the Scuderia Ecosse domination
of pole position, when Dirk Müller claimed pole on his FIA GT debut.
The German driver, returning to his GT roots, set a time of 1:35.113 in
the nr 50 Ferrari 430 GT2, one tenth ahead of fellow AF Corse newcomer
Gianmaria Bruni, in the nr 51 car.
"I am very happy not just for myself but for my team. It was a bit of a
rush to get this team organized. We had not enough testing, fortunately
we are quick straight away, as we are 1-2 in qualifying." said Dirk
Muller.
Gianmaria Bruni is delighted to be second. "The team is fantastic, they
work very hard and I am very comfortable in the car. This is my first
race not in a single seater and it has been OK. This is a good starting
point. My teammate Stephane Ortelli is very experienced and he helped
me so much. I want to use this opportunity to thank him. I am an
Italian driving for an Italian team racing an Italian car, what more
can I ask for?"
Scuderia Ecosse's Kirkaldy was third in the nr 63 Ferrari he shares
with Chris Niarchos, bringing an end to the run of ten poles for the
Scottish team.
"The end of the pole position run had to happen sometime. These guys
are really quick. Tomorrow's race is going to be tough, the race is
going to be very, very close."
Fourth and fastest Porsche was the BMS Scuderia Italia car, Emmanuel Collard just five tenths off pole.
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