Porsche on top in China

It will be an all-Porsche front row, the Freisinger 9911 of Kaufmann and Bob Wollek being joined by Sascha Maassen and Franz Konrad. The latter pair were on provisional pole after first qualifying but could not match Kaufmann in the afternoon session.

The ORECA Vipers that have dominated all bar one of this season's races will line up third and fourth. The team does not look as strong as usual in China, and their drivers are prepared for a hard race, hampered by the weight penalties imposed in a bid to stop ORECA steamrollering the opposition with such regularity.

'Overtaking is going to be a problem,' admitted Jean-Philippe Belloc. 'The weight means it is very difficult to get past another car under braking, and the Porsches are very fast on the straights. But we are ready to fight.'

None of the many Porsche 911 teams have tasted victory yet in 1999, but Wollek is optimistic about his chances of changing that statistic in tomorrow's race.

'I think we can win,' he declared. 'It we don't make any mistakes, we should be close to first, or maybe first.

'We've proved in qualifying that the car is well-prepared, the tyres are good and that the drivers aren't too bad either.'

The non-factory Vipers from the Chamberlain and Belmondo teams will be the other main contenders in fifth, sixth and seventh places. British driver Rob Schirle will only start 15th in his Roock Porsche, he qualified tenth but the time was disallowed because the car was underweight.

Final qualifying positions from Zhuhai: