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Kumpen on pole for PK-Carsport

Local hero Anthony Kumpen grabbed pole position for the PK-Carsport Chevrolet Corvette team ahead of Sunday's FIA GT Championship decider at Zolder

Kumpen's best lap of 1m27.399s gave him pole by just 0.065 seconds in front of the best of the Vitaphone Maseratis driven by Alex Muller.

It was the perfect start to the weekend for Kumpen and team-mate Mike Hezemans, who trail the number one Vitaphone crew of Michael Bartels and Andrea Bertolini by four points in the championship battle.

Kumpen said: "This is the one and only pole I wanted. I live five minutes from here and have probably raced at Zolder more than all the other tracks combined.

"It's fortunate that we know the track and the conditions very well. That gave us a small advantage and we were able to create the perfect car. That's down to everyone involved in the team, because this isn't a Corvette track."

Muller, who shares with Miguel Ramos, reckoned that pole might have been possible but for a small mistake on his best lap.

"I locked up a wheel and missed an apex," he said. "I think pole was reachable today."

Alessandro Pier Guidi qualified the remaining Vitaphone Maserati MC12 in third place, one tenth of a second behind team-mate Muller. Enrique Bernoldi, winner last time out at Paul Ricard with Ricardo Streit, ended up fourth on the timesheets in the DKR-run Team Brazil Corvette C6.R.

Bertolini could qualify only sixth after taking a trip through the gravel at the Gilles Villeneuve Chicane.

Gianmaria Bruni claimed GT2 pole with a 1m31.622s lap at the wheel of the lead AF Corse Ferrari 430 GT. The Italian ended up just over two tenths of a second ahead of Porsche factory driver Jorg Bergmeister, who has been drafted in to share a second Trackspeed 911 GT3-RSR with Christian Mamerow to bolster the German manufacturer's championship challenger.

ProSpeed Porsche driver Richard Westbrook ended up third in GT2. The Briton and regular team-mate Emmanuel Collard, who trail Bruni and Toni Vilander by three points, have been split up for the weekend. Westbrook drives with Marco Holzer, while Collard has been moved over to the Brixia Racing team to race with Martin Ragginger.

Pos  Qualifying driver   Cl   Car       Time       Gap
 1.  Anthony Kumpen      GT1  Corvette  1m27.399s
 2.  Alex Muller         GT1  Maserati  1m27.464s  + 0.065s
 3.  Alex Pier Guidi     GT1  Maserati  1m27.589s  + 0.190s
 4.  Enrique Bernoldi    GT1  Corvette  1m28.026s  + 0.627s
 5.  Xavier Masseen      GT1  Corvette  1m28.148s  + 0.749s
 6.  Andrea Bertolini    GT1  Maserati  1m28.183s  + 0.784s
 7.  Bert Longin         GT1  Corvette  1m28.848s  + 1.449s
 8.  Michael Krumm       GT1  Nissan    1m30.754s  + 3.355s
 9.  Bas Leinders        GT1  Ford      1m31.274s  + 3.875s
10.  Gianmaria Bruni     GT2  Ferrari   1m31.622s  + 4.223s
11.  Jorg Bergmeister    GT2  Porsche   1m31.831s  + 4.432s
12.  Richard Westbrook   GT2  Porsche   1m31.879s  + 4.480s
13.  Matias Russo        GT2  Ferrari   1m31.911s  + 4.512s
14.  Marc Lieb           GT2  Porsche   1m32.264s  + 4.865s
15.  Tim Mullen          GT2  Ferrari   1m32.295s  + 4.896s
16.  Rob Bell            GT2  Ferrari   1m32.396s  + 4.997s
17.  Paolo Ruberti       GT2  Ferrari   1m32.565s  + 5.166s
18.  Martin Ragginer     GT2  Porsche   1m32.693s  + 5.294s
19.  Alvaro Barba Lopez  GT2  Ferrari   1m32.759s  + 5.360s
20.  Sascha Maassen      GT2  Porsche   1m33.345s  + 5.946s
21.  Stephane Lemeret    GT2  Ferrari   1m33.530s  + 6.131s

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