Aston secures front row lock-out
Date published : 22 Aug 2009 - 13:25:54
Aston Martin Racing has locked the front row of the grid for tomorrow's Nurburging 1000Km round of the Le Mans Series.Stefan Mucke claimed pole aboard the lead Lola-Aston with only his second flying lap of the session. His 1m41.944s lap was just over one tenth of a second quicker than team-mate Darren Turner, who also set his time on his second flying lap.Mucke explained that AMR had decided to keep all three of its cars in the pits until the closing minutes of the session in an attempt to get a clear lap for qualifying."We've been struggling all weekend with the tyres - it takes three laps to up them up to temperature," said the German, who was celebrating his first LMS pole of the season. "I was much faster on my third lap in the first sector, but then there were yellows and I had to lift off."Marcel Fassler made it three Lola-Astons in the top three places. He was half a second behind Turner in the 2008-spec Speedy Team Sebah entry.Strakka Ginetta-Zytek driver Danny Watts edged out the championship-leading Pescarolo-Judd driven by Jean-Christophe Boullion for fourth place.Olivier Pla came out on top in LMP1 aboard the ASM Team Ginetta-Zytek. The Portuguese, who leads the P2 points with team-mate Miguel Amaral, ended up nearly 1.2 seconds faster than Philipp Peter in the Trading Performance squad's older Zytek.Pierre Kaffer took GT2 qualifying honours in the Hankook-Team Farnbacher Ferrari 430 GT.Pos Cl Drivers Car Time 1. P1 Charouz/Tomas/Mucke Lola Aston Martin 1m41.944s 2. P1 Primat/Turner Lola Aston Martin 1m42.060s 3. P1 Belicchi/F?ler/Prost Lola Aston Martin 1m42.570s 4. P1 Leventis/Watts Ginetta Zytek 1m42.966s 5. P1 Boullion/Tinseau/Collard Pescarolo Judd 1m43.196s 6. P1 Ragues/Mailleux Courage-Oreca Judd 1m43.888s 7. P1 Karthikeyan/Meyrick/Zwolsman Audi 1m44.010s 8. P1 Albers/Bakkerud/Mondini Audi 1m45.446s 9. P2 Amaral/Pla Ginetta-Zytek 1m45.578s10. P1 Ramos/Hall/Buncombe Lola Aston Martin 1m45.950s11. P2 Ojjeh/Gosselin/Peter Zytek 1m46.708s12. P2 Kane/Leuenberger/Pompidou Lola Judd 1m46.762s13. P2 Bobbi/Piccini/Biagi Lola Judd 1m46.784s14. P2 Erdos/Newton Lola Mazda 1m46.940s15. P2 Lahaye/Ajlani Pescarolo Mazda 1m47.498s16. P2 Francioni/Ceccato/Piccini Lola Judd 1m48.098s17. P2 Salini/Salini/Gommendy WR Zytek 1m48.258s18. P2 Bruneau/Sini/Vergers Radical AER 1m48.930s19. P2 Nicolet/Hein Pescarolo Mazda 1m49.770s20. P2 Cortes/Nieto/Jorda Lucchini Judd 1m51.848s21. P2 Ibanez/Cavailhes/Da Rocha Courage AER 1m52.610s22. P2 Lavaggi/Kaufmann Lavaggi AER 1m52.796s23. P2 Schell/Thirion/Metz Courage AER 1m53.076s24. GT1 Berville/Groppi/Dumez Saleen Ford 1m55.158s25. GT1 Jousse/Goueslard/Clairay Chevrolet 1m55.974s26. GT2 Simonsen/Kaffer Ferrari 1m57.982s27. GT2 Garcia/Mansell/Melo Ferrari 1m58.098s28. GT2 Lieb/Lietz Porsche 1m58.228s29. GT2 Bell/Bruni Ferrari 1m58.436s30. GT2 Narac/Pilet Porsche 1m58.924s31. GT2 Coronel/Janis Spyker Audi 1m59.114s32. GT2 Ehret/Farnbacher/Beltoise Ferrari 1m59.290s33. GT2 Drayson/Cocker Aston Martin 1m59.442s34. GT2 Hartshorne/Kutemann/Scheier Ferrari 1m59.666s35. GT2 Montermini/Ricci/Rosa Ferrari 2m00.272s36. GT2 Griffin/Bamford Ferrari 2m00.422s37. GT2 Felbermayr Jr/Ried/Martins Porsche 2m01.730s38. GT2 Basso/Plati/Tenchini Ferrari 2m02.942s
