Biagi grabs pole for Vitaphone
Thomas Biagi put the lead Vitaphone Maserati MC12 on pole position for the opening round of the 2007 FIA GT Championship after an extremely close qualifying session at Zhuhai
The Italian, who shares the car with team co-owner Michael Bartels this year, beat Mike Hezemans (Phoenix/Carsport Holland Corvette) to the top spot by a scant 0.005 seconds, while Anthony Kumpen put the older GLPK Corvette third, just 0.025 seconds from pole.
Scuderia Playteam's Andrea Bertolini completed a very tight top four in his Maserati, also within two tenths of a second of Biagi's time.
With much of practice having been affected by rain, Saturday afternoon's qualifying session offered the first clear picture of form around the tight Chinese track.
At present it appears that the Maseratis and Corvettes are better suited to the venue than the Aston Martins, with the quickest DBR9 only sixth fastest - nearly a second from pole - in the hands of Fabio Babini. The Scuderia Italia driver beat JetAlliance's Karl Wendlinger by just 0.002 seconds.
In GT2, Emmanuel Collard had been fastest for Porsche in practice, but had to settle for fourth in class behind three Ferraris in qualifying.
World Touring Car Championship refugee Dirk Muller took class pole in the AF Corse entry, fractionally ahead of teammate Gianmaria Bruni and Scuderia Ecosse's Andrew Kirkaldy.
Qualifying times:
Pos Cl Drivers Make Time 1. GT1 Biagi/Bartels Maserati 1:31.339 2. GT1 Hezemans/Deletraz Corvette 1:31.344 + 0.005 3. GT1 Kumpen/Longin Corvette 1:31.364 + 0.025 4. GT1 Bertolini/Piccini Maserati 1:31.551 + 0.212 5. GT1 Peter/Hines Corvette 1:32.113 + 0.774 6. GT1 Babini/Davies Aston Martin 1:32.304 + 0.965 7. GT1 Wendlinger/Sharp Aston Martin 1:32.306 + 0.967 8. GT1 Pier Guidi/Giannoccaro Maserati 1:32.433 + 1.094 9. GT1 Montanari/Ramos Maserati 1:32.565 + 1.226 10. GT1 Bouchut/Mucke Lamborghini 1:32.848 + 1.509 11. GT1 Mondini/Monfardini Aston Martin 1:32.883 + 1.544 12. GT1 Lechner/Lichter-Hoyer Aston Martin 1:33.170 + 1.831 13. GT1 Kox/Menten Lamborghini 1:33.286 + 1.947 14. GT1 Cocker/Kane Aston Martin 1:33.398 + 2.059 15. GT2 Muller/Vilander Ferrari 1:35.113 + 3.774 16. GT2 Bruni/Ortelli Ferrari 1:35.214 + 3.875 17. GT2 Kirkaldy/Niarchos Ferrari 1:35.246 + 3.907 18. GT2 Collard/Malucelli Porsche 1:35.683 + 4.344 19. GT2 Mullen/Enge Ferrari 1:36.517 + 5.178 20. GT2 Zani/Busnelli Porsche 1:36.572 + 5.233 21. GT2 Edwards/Machitski Porsche 1:36.588 + 5.249 22. GT1 Macari/Aucott Maserati 1:36.709 + 5.370 23. GT2 Basseng/Ried Porsche 1:38.449 + 7.110
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