Watts puts Strakka on outright pole
Date published : 22 Aug 2010 - 08:41:09
An incredible effort from Danny Watts put the LMP2 Strakka HPD on outright pole for the Le Mans Series' inaugural Hungaroring round.Watts left it late before coming out in this morning's qualifying session for today's afternoon-into-evening race, and had just two flying laps. Despite losing a second to his rivals on the straights of sector one, he was able to make up all that time and more in the remaining part of the lap to take pole by 0.4 seconds with his final effort.Until Watts' stunning lap, Rebellion's Lolas had been set to fill the front row, but Jean-Christophe Boullion and Neel Jani had to settle for second and third.The ORECA Peugeot will start only fourth, Olivier Panis having been deposed from his early provisional pole and then not found enough time on his next run. In the end he was 1.2s adrift of Watts.Pierre Ragues slid into the tyres on his first flying lap in the Signature Lola-Aston Martin, before recovering to take fifth ahead of the Beechdean Mansell Ginetta-Zytek.After a flurry of rapid-fire late position changes, GT2 ended up being dominated by Ferraris.GP2 star Alvaro Parente made a spectacular debut for AF Corse by putting the car he will share with Alvaro Barba (while usual pilots Jaime Melo and Gianmaria Bruni are on American Le Mans Series duty) on pole ahead of the sister F430 of Giancarlo Fisichella.Andrew Kirkaldy's #91 CRS car and the third AF Corse entry driven by Matias Russo completed an all-Ferrari top four, and with Darren Turner's JMW Aston Martin and Dominik Farnbacher's Farnbacher Ferrari next up, the best Porsche was Richard Westbrook in the Prospeed example way back in seventh.In the moribund GT1 class, the Larbre Saleen qualified among the GT2 leaders while the Atlas Saleen lost a wheel on its first lap and did not set a time.Pos Cl Drivers Car Time 1. P2 Leventis/Watts/Kane HPD 1m32.431s 2. P1 Belicchi/Boullion Lola-Rebellion 1m32.888s 3. P1 Prost/Jani Lola-Rebellion 1m32.924s 4. P1 Panis/Lapierre/Sarrazin Peugeot 1m33.613s 5. P1 Ragues/Mailleux/Ickx Lola Aston Martin 1m35.297s 6. P1 Mansell/Mansell Ginetta-Zytek 1m35.441s 7. P2 Amaral/Pla Ginetta-Zytek 1m35.586s 8. P2 Moreau/Hein Pescarolo-Judd 1m35.873s 9. P2 Lahaye/Nicolet Pescarolo-Judd 1m36.024s10. P2 Erdos/Newton/Collins Lola-HPD 1m36.250s11. P2 Geri/Babini/Leo Lola-Judd 1m36.660s12. P2 Ojjeh/Greaves/Ebbesvik Ginetta-Zytek 1m37.256s13. P2 Gates/Garofall/Hughes MG Lola-AER 1m37.796s14. P2 Pirri/Cioci/Perazzinii Lola-Judd 1m38.307s15. P2 Frey/Buncombe Radical-Judd 1m40.988s16. FLM Toulemonde/Beche FLM ORECA 1m41.987s17. FLM Firth/Manning FLM ORECA 1m42.213s18. FLM Pillon/Verdonck/Capillaire FLM ORECA 1m42.253s19. FLM Zacchia/Lombard/Moro FLM ORECA 1m42.461s20. FLM Barlesi/Cicognani/Chalandon FLM ORECA 1m42.814s21. FLM Kraihamer/De Crem/Delhez FLM ORECA 1m43.223s22. P2 Schell/Da Rocha Courage-ORECA 1m45.105s23. GT2 Barba/Parente Ferrari 1m46.535s24. GT2 Alesi/Fisichella/Vilander Ferrari 1m46.684s25. GT2 Kirkaldy/Mullen Ferrari 1m46.950s26. GT1 Gardel/Goueslard/Rees Saleen 1m47.005s27. GT2 Companc/Russo Ferrari 1m47.157s28. GT2 Bell/Turner Aston Martin 1m46.847s29. GT2 Farnbacher/Simonsen Ferrari 1m47.369s30. GT2 Westbrook/Holzer Porsche 1m47.518s31. GT2 Lieb/Lietz Porsche 1m47.526s32. GT2 Pilet/Narac Porsche 1m47.551s33. GT2 Ragginger/Ried/Dumas Porsche 1m47.705s34. GT2 Dumbreck/Coronel Spyker 1m47.800s35. GT2 Ehret/Quaife Ferrari 1m48.039s36. FLM Kutemann/Basso/Hartshorne FLM ORECA 1m48.766s37. GT2 Felbermayr/Felbermayr/Seefried Porsche 1m49.977s38. GT1 Van Dam/Lemeret/Walchhofer Saleen
