Melo delighted to deny Porsche pole

Date published : 08 May 2010 - 17:32:50

AF Corse Ferrari's Jamie Melo said he was delighted to beat Porsche to pole position in the GT2 class for the Spa 1,000km after a difficult weekend with the 430 GT.Melo, who shares his car with Gianmaria Bruni, set a lap of 2m20.336s which was just four hundredths from Marc Lieb's Felbermayr-Proton 911 GT3 RSR.But the time came off the back of a difficult build-up to qualifying following a brake issue in free practice and a loss of track time."It's nice to be in front of Porsche because they are really strong on this track, especially in a straight line," said Melo. "Considering the brake problems we had yesterday and today it is hot weather."I think we can improve the car for the race still. But I am quite satisfied with the qualifying, less so with the car behaviour but we have a margin of improvement for the race."Melo added that Ferrari's decision to opt for the wider tyres and heavier weight this year may have assisted the 430's pace around the 4.3-mile Spa circuit."It has more overall grip and it is working better on the fast corners and a little bit more power, but we are just struggling with the brakes a little bit at the moment. Something I hope we can fix for the race!"