We'll talk later about what's going to change and what that will mean.
What you have to focus on now is the last race of the season, last time you'll see these rockets thundering on the track. Yes all of them received the green light to race even next year, but with their performance highly affected by the new rules.
Never mind, this is how the qualifying ended.
We have GT1championship leaders, Michael Bartels and Andrea Bertolini in 6th position on the starting grid in their #1 Vitaphone Maserati MC12, a bit disappointing. Right in from of them there is the #19 Luc Alphand Adventures Corvette Z06 driven by Xavier Maassen and Thomas Biagi. The #8 Sangari Corvette Z06 driven by last race winning Bernoldi and Streit couple is 4th.
Third spot is owned by #33 Vitaphone DHL Maserati MC12 driven by Alex Pier Guidi and car mate Matteo Bobbi. Second place has been take by the #2 MC12 driven my Ramos and Muller, while the title contenders of Pekaracing, Anthony Kumpen and Mike Hezemans, took the pole position in their #4 Corvette Z06.
That's not how the race is going to start thoug, as Pole-setter Anthony Kumpen and second-fastest qualifying man Alex Müller both received grid penalities due to setting their best times under yellow flags during yesterday's qualifying session.
So the new starting grid now is: the nr 33 Vitaphone Racing Team DHL Maserati MC 12 starting from first position, alongside the nr 8 Sangari Team Brazil Corvette. The second row will be the nr 19 Luc Alphand Aventures Corvette, alongside Championship leader nr 1 Vitaphone Maserati MC 12. The third row will be Longin and Ruffier in the nr 3 SRT Corvette, alongside Championship contenders Hezemans and Kumpen, with the nr 2 Vitaphone Maserati on the fourth row alongside the nr 35 Nissan GT-R.
The #1 MC12 is leading by a tight 4 points gap over the #4 Corvette.
In GT2, #50 AF Corse Ferrari F430 GT2 driven by Gianmaria "Jimmy" Bruni took the pole position, ahead of Bergmeister in his Porsche 997 GT3 RSR. Championship contender Richard Westbrook is third in once another Porsche 911, while former his team mate and now opponent Emanuel Collard is 9th in his new #97 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, albeit qualifie by his new car mate Ragginger.
On a final note, next year GT1 cars, the Matech Ford GT1 and the Nismo GT-R R35, barely managed to qualify ahead of GT2 cars. I'd have expected some better results by the end of this experimental season. I'm more interested in good action and motorsports rather than pure speed and performance, so we'll next year how it'll be.
Follow the jump for the usual live streaming and live timing of this last thrilling FIA GT event from Zolder.
Live timing HERE
The Italian Junkyard
Photo Copyright: DPPI - Michael BARTELS (GER) - Andrea BERTOLINI (ITA) / MASERATI MC12 GT1 N°1 team VITAPHONE RACING
Want to know more?
Posts
