Qualifying: Lammers scorches to pole

The 45-year-old former Le Mans winner left it to the last minutes of the 30 minute session to eclipse the Scuderia Italia Ferrari of Christian Pescatori by just two tenths of a second.

The top four positions were covered by a mere nine tenths of a second on the championships first visit to Irish shores and the championship battle was set up to be battled head to head in Saturday's race, as the top four all have realistic title hopes.

"It was a 100 percent effort lap as I saw P2 on the pit board when Pescatori went quicker right at the end so I really went for it and it proved to be enough," said Lammers. "I just hope that we can have some luck on our side this time and get our first win."

Christian Pescatori was slightly disappointed to be bumped off the pole on the final lap but the cheerful Italian was still looking forward to helping team mate Marco Zadra's quest to win the championship in the final three races.

"I am happy because it will be a very hard race tomorrow and we must look after the car," he said. "It will be interesting to see what strategies everyone will run in the race."

The Den Bla Avis Dome of John Nielsen finished up third on the grid and the burly Dane was reasonably happy with the way his session went after much of the morning free practice had been lost when Hiroki Katoh went off-course after his throttle stuck open.

Team Ascari are quietly confident of maintaining their momentum and Ben Collins felt as though he could have got on the front row had it not been for pole sitter Lammers inadvertently baulking him on his quickest lap.

French ace Jean Marc Gounon was as flamboyant as ever in the 6-litre Kremer run Lola Roush but his session was hindered by a lack of set up time this morning when his team mate Sam Hancock spun and damaged the rear of the car at the first corner. They ended up fifth, one place ahead of R&M pairing Mauro Baldi and Alex Caffi, both of who complained about lack of traction on the tight infield sections of the track.

The second Scuderia Italia run Ferrari 333SP qualified by Lilian Bryner rounded out the SR1 runners with the Swiss driver setting a best time of 1m34.360s.

SR2 saw a clear pole taken by Martin O'Connell in the Rowan Racing Pilbeam Nissan. It was the Ray Rowan prepared car's second pole position of the year after Spa and Martin was delighted that the first battle of their title assault had gone to plan.

"I got a good clear lap and made the most of it," he said. "Pole is with a lot more here than at other tracks as it will be seriously difficult to overtake in the race. The battle between the Lola and us should be as close as it has been everywhere else but at the moment we are quietly confident."