Hennerici takes first GT1 pole
German Marc Hennerici claimed his first pole position in the new FIA GT1 World Championship at the Algarve circuit in Portugal today
The Phoenix Chevrolet Corvette driver set a best time of 1m42.394s in the final qualifying round to secure the top spot by just 0.03 seconds from the Marc VDS Ford GT driven by Maxime Martin. Hennerici's pole means that his team-mate Alex Margaritis will start this afternoon's Qualifying Race from the pole.
"This is my first time on his track, so this is a good result," said Hennerici. "Phoenix has given me a car that is really good even with 20kg of success ballast. I think that lap was the maximum I could achieve."
Third place behind the Ford Martin shares with Bas Leinders was Peter Dumbreck in the best of the Nissans. He qualified Sumo Power-run GT-R he drives with Michael Krumm on a time three tenths slower than Martin.
The two Vitaphone Maseratis qualified fourth and fifth. Enrique Bernoldi ended up just a couple of hundreths ahead of team-mate Andrea Bertolini.
The winner of the last round of the championship, the Young Driver AMR Aston Martin driven by Darren Turner and Tomas Enge failed to make it into the final round of qualifying. Enge ended up 11th fastest in Qualifying 2.
Bertolini and Michael Bartels' main title rival Thomas Mutsch struggled for speed in his Matech Ford and was only 22nd.
Pos Drivers Car Time Session 1. Hennerici/Margaritis Corvette 1m42.394s Q3 2. Martin/Leinders Ford 1m42.424s Q3 3. Dumbreck/Krumm Nissan 1m42.724s Q3 4. Bernoldi/Ramos Maserati 1m42.827s Q3 5. Bertolini/Bartels Maserati 1m42.843s Q3 6. Pastorelli/Schwager Lamborghini 1m43.537s Q3 7. Mayr-Melnhof/Pier Guidi Maserati 1m44.605s Q3 8. Heger/Muller Maserati Q3 9. Bouchut/Basseng Lamborghini 1m43.429s Q2 10. Kechele/Menten Lamborghini 1m43.510s Q2 11. Turner/Enge Aston Martin 1m43.581s Q2 12. Jousse/Maassen Corvette 1m43.727s Q2 13. Mucke/Lamy Aston Martin 1m44.303s Q2 14. Makowiecki/Clairay Aston Martin 1m44.596s Q2 15. Ara/Nilsson Nissan 1m44.607s Q2 16. Cazenave/Kuismanen Corvette 1m45.124s Q2 17. Prost/Jani Ford 1m43.762s Q1 18. Palttala/Kuppens Ford 1m43.796s Q1 19. Wendlinger/Moser Nissan 1m43.812s Q1 20. Hirschi/Piccione Aston Martin 1m43.904s Q1 21. Kox/Haase Lamborghini 1m44.008s Q1 22. Mutsch/Westbrook Ford 1m44.083s Q1 23. Campbell-Walter/Hughes Nissan 1m44.686s Q1
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