Bouchut, Garcia on pole in Bahrain
Russian Age Racing's Christophe Bouchut and Antonio Garcia upstaged the fight for the FIA GT drivers' championship at Bahrain on Thursday when they topped qualifying for the final round
The Aston Martin duo set a best lap of 1:54.184 seconds in qualifying to snatch pole position from series leaders Andrea Bertolini and Karl Wendlinger in the Maserati, who had been on provisional pole position after the first session.
Bouchut knew that the best qualifying times would come in the second session, which took place in the cooler late afternoon - and he has now set his sights on victory.
"I am flying!" said the Frenchman, who performance has netted him his third successive pole position. "I am very happy, for sure.
"Three pole position times in a row is good; the Aston Martin is very quick. I was very impressed with its lap time in the first qualifying and I was just dreaming of a better lap time tonight.
"The combination of car and driver will be the thing that makes for a good result. It will be our last opportunity to try to get a victory and we really want to win."
Wendlinger and Bartels are part of a mammoth seven-way fight for the drivers' title. Closest challengers Michael Bartels and Timo Scheider qualified sixth, with Gabriele Gardel and Pedro Lamy in fifth place.
The other title challengers, Thomas Biagi and Fabio Babini will start fourth, right behind the Maserati of Philipp Peter and Jamie Davies.
Pos Class Drivers Car Time 1. GT1 Bouchut/Garcia Aston Martin DBR9 1:54.184 2. GT1 Bertolini/Wendlinger Maserati MC12 GT1 + 0.112 3. GT1 Peter/Davies Maserati MC12 GT1 + 0.381 4. GT1 Babini/Biagi Maserati MC12 GT1 + 0.685 5. GT1 Lamy/Gardel Ferrari 550 Maranello + 1.168 6. GT1 Bartels/Scheider Maserati MC12 GT1 + 1.929 7. GT1 Zacchia/Narac/Berville Ferrari 550 Maranello + 2.683 8. GT1 Deletraz/Piccini Ferrari 575 Maranello GTC + 2.686 9. GT1 Lechner/Ruberti Saleen S7 R + 2.737 10. GT1 Longin/Kumpen/Hezemans Corvette C5R + 2.758 11. GT1 Cioci/Montermini Ferrari 575 Maranello GTC + 3.244 12. GT1 Fomenko/Vasiliev Ferrari 550 Maranello + 3.863 13. GT1 Keen/Halliday Lister Storm GT + 4.492 14. GT1 Lacko/Konrad Saleen S7 R + 5.025 15. GT2 Lieb/Rockenfeller Porsche 996 GT3 RSR + 7.284 16. GT2 Collard/Sugden Porsche 996 GT3 RSR + 8.431 17. GT2 Bleekemolen/Crevels Spyker C8 Spyder GT2 R + 8.738 18. GT2 Drudi/Pirri/Pregliasco Ferrari 360 Modena + 9.487 19. GT2 Moro/Kaufmann Porsche 996 GT3 RSR + 9.985 20. GT2 Rapetti/Moccia Porsche 996 GT3 RSR + 10.036 21. GT2 Kuppens/Leinders/Ickx Vertigo Streiff + 12.527 22. GT2 Konopka/Rosina Porsche 996 GT3 RSR + 14.155 23. GT2 Vonka/Casadei Porsche 996 GT3 RS + 14.278 24. GT2 Waaijenberg/Kutemann Ferrari 360 Modena + 14.721 25. GT2 Ried/Jaber Al-Khalifa Porsche 996 GT3 RS + 18.250
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