Corvette Takes First Pole

Crewed by Mike Hezemans, Antony Kumpen and Bert Longin, the Corvette finished the session 0.291 quicker than Pedro Lamy and Gabriele Gardel in the Larbre Competition Ferrari 550 Maranello that had sat at the top of the timesheets for most of the session.

The quickest Maserati MC12 - the JMB Racing car driven by Philip Peter, Chris Buncombe and Roman Rusinov - was third quickest, 0.392 off the top time.

The Gruppe M Racing Porsche GT3 RSRs were the pick of the bunch in the GT2 class, with the Emmanuel Collard/Tim Sugden car this time quicker than its sister driven by Marc Lieb and Mike Rockenfeller.

There is another 45 minute qualifying session on the Italian circuit this afternoon to settle the grid for tomorrow's race definitively.

2005 FIA GT Championship - Imola Qualifying 1:

Pos Drivers                   Make                   Time             Laps
 1. Longin/Kumpen/Hezemans    Corvette C5R           1:45.835           11
 2. Lamy/Gardel               Ferrari 550 Maranello  1:46.126 +  0.291  11
 3. Peter/Buncombe/Rusinov    Maserati MC12 GT1      1:46.227 +  0.392  19
 4. Bartels/Scheider          Maserati MC12 GT1      1:46.373 +  0.538  12
 5. Bouchut/Fomenko/Vasiliev  Ferrari 550 Maranello  1:46.466 +  0.631  11
 6. Ruberti/Camathias         Saleen S7 R            1:46.636 +  0.801  16
 7. Babini/Biagi              Maserati MC12 GT1      1:46.639 +  0.804  16
 8. Deletraz/Piccini          Ferrari 575 Maranello  1:47.049 +  1.214  20
 9. Lechner/Bobbi             Saleen S7 R            1:47.261 +  1.426  18
10. Bertolini/Wendlinger      Maserati MC12 GT1      1:47.297 +  1.462  13
11. Melo/Belloc               Ferrari 575 Maranello  1:47.549 +  1.714  18
12. Keen/Halliday             Lister Storm GT        1:49.527 +  3.692  17
13. Casoni/Varini/Panzavuota  Saleen S7 R            1:51.050 +  5.215  20
14. Collard/Sugden            Porsche 996 GT3 RSR    1:51.082 +  5.247  10
15. Becker/Hermann            Saleen S7 R            1:51.417 +  5.582  20
16. Lieb/Rockenfeller         Porsche 996 GT3 RSR    1:51.835 +  6.000  11
17. Stanco/Janus              Saleen S7 R            1:51.935 +  6.100  12
18. Balfe/Derbyshire          Mosler MT900R          1:52.752 +  6.917  19
19. Moccia/Busnelli           Porsche 996 GT3 RSR    1:53.171 +  7.336  14
20. Kuppens/Leinders          Vertigo Streiff        1:55.772 +  9.937  13
21. Kaufmann/Moro             Porsche 996 GT3 RSR    1:57.015 + 11.180  15
22. Ried/Ried                 Porsche 996 GT3 RS     1:57.905 + 12.070  19
23. Vonka/Amaduzzi/Castro     Porsche 996 GT3 RS     1:59.421 + 13.586  18
24. Wilson/MacAri             Ferrari 360 Modena     1:59.787 + 13.952  13