First qualifying: Bailey proves his point
Julian Bailey showed why Lister was right to put him in its number two Storm as he set the fastest time in the first qualifying session at Monza. He will face another test this afternoon, however, when the top six cars go head-to-head in the Super Pole session
The former Lotus F1 racer was ditched by Lister in favour of ex-Formula Nippon champion Tom Coronel over the winter. He came back into the Lister fold, however, when Philippe Favre encountered "contractual problems" and he was given the seat alongside Nicolaus Springer in the number two car.
"It's a nice way to announce that I'm back in the championship," he said. "I only found out I was coming here last week so I basically just put on my favourite set-up from last year and, bang, we were right there."
Bailey set a lap of 1m48.513s, just 0.029 quicker than the Labre Chrysler Viper of Christophe Bouchut and Jean-Philippe Belloc. Belmondo Racing Vipers took the next two places, as Anthony Kumpen/Claude-Yves Gosselin were third quickest, ahead of Vincent Vosse/Boris Derichebourg, who have been suffering clutch problems all weekend.
On his debut in the Belmondo squad, Kumpen said: "I never expected to be third because there's really good competition around. I was first out on the circuit, because I knew the traffic would be bad."
The wonderful-sounding Ferrari 550 Maranello of Emanuele Naspetti and Mimmo Schiattarella was fifth quickest, ahead of the Viper of Paul Belmondo/Didier Defourny.
Jamie Campbell-Walter and his new team mate Tom Coronel could only manage seventh quickest time in the lead Lister. An electrical problem in the engine meant the car was 10mph down on Monza's long straights. The car will have to start 13th, however, as it will have to start behind the top six N-GT class cars from this afternoon's Super Pole session.
Neither of the Carsport Holland Vipers made an appearance due to engine problems. Both cars blew engines yesterday and the team is now concentrating on getting the car of Mike Hezemans and sportscars newcomer Jeroen Bleekemolen on the grid. Lister is flying its engine specialist from Silverstone later today to help its rivals out.
1 Bailey/Springer (Lister Storm) 1m48.513s
2 Bouchut/Belloc (Chrysler Viper) 1m48.542s
3 Kumpen/Gosselin (Chrysler Viper) 1m48.712s
4 Vosse/Derichebourg (Chrysler Viper) 1m49.119s
5 Naspetti/Schiatarella (Ferrari 550 Maranello) 1m49.381s
6 Belmondo/Defourny (Chrysler Viper) 1m49.432s
7 Campbell-Walter/Coronel (Lister Storm) 1m49.583s
8 Bleininger/Duez (Ferrari 550 Maranello) 1m49.846s
9 Cappellari/Matteuzzi (Chrysler Viper) 1m50.818s
10 Jarier/Lafon (Chrysler Viper) 1m51.381s
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