Qualifying: ORECA loses pole
ORECA drivers Franck Montagny and Olivier Beretta dominated qualifying for the first race of FIA Sportscar championship at Barcelona today (Saturday), but will have to start from the back of the grid after a technical infringement. Their Dallara-Judd was over 1.7s quicker than nearest rivals, the Pescarolo Sport Courage of Sebastien Bourdais and Jean Christophe Boullion, who will now start from pole
"Everything is going so well here with the Goodyear tyres which are new for us," said Montagny, before learning of the scruntineers' decision. "We know there is good competition from the Courage and Dome cars but they all had some problems today, tomorrow will be different for sure."
The Peugeot-powered Courage was fractionally quicker than Judd-engined version of Didier Cottaz, which suffered a high-speed accident at Curvone Renault, althought the Frenchman was perfectly okay. Indeed Judd cars filled the next four places, with Jan Lammers' Racing for Holland Dome heading the pack.
"I turned in to the corner and I just went straight," said Cottaz. "The car has not much damage and I am sure we will be in the race tomorrow."
Nissan power was to the fore in the SR2 class, with the top three qualifiers using the Japanese unit. British ace Ian Flux grabbed pole in his Team Sovereign Rapier, denying the SRTS Lola of Mattias Andersson.
One driver who will not be taking part in tomorrow's race is BTCC star Warren Hughes. The Englishman had planned to drive a Bob Berridge Racing Lola, but the deal fell through earlier this week. Ian McKellar Jr has replaced him.
Franck Montagny/Olivier Beretta Dallara-Judd 1m33.632s
Sebastien Bourdais/ Jean Christophe Boullion Courage-Peugeot 1m35.428s
Didier Cottaz/Boris Derichebourg/Thed Bjork Courage-Judd 1m35.443s
Val Hillebrand/Jan Lammers Dome-Judd 1m36.989s
Ian McKeller Jr/Bob Berriddge Lola-Judd 1m38.574s
Alex Caffi/Mauro Baldi R&M-Judd 1m38.880s
Alessandro Battaglin/ Mirko Venturi GMS-Judd 1m41.669s
Richard Jones/Peter Cook/ Robin Smith Riley & Scott-Chevrolet 1m48.668s
Ian Flux/Mike Millard Rapier-Nissan 1m41.997s
Mattias Andersson/Niklas Loven Lola-Nissan 1m42.735s
John Stack/Sam Hignett Pilbeam-Nissan 1m42.825s
Share Or Save This Story
MotoGP Barcelona test: Acosta fastest as rain curtails running early
Why this year's Indy 500 isn't as straightforward to call as you might expect
Will Mercedes or McLaren land the next punch at F1's Canadian GP?
The mental challenge Evans takes on at Rally Japan
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments