Christophe Bouchut, driving a Michelin-shod Convers Team-run Ferrari 550 Maranello, earlier today claimed GT1 pole position for the opening round of the 2005 Le Mans Endurance Series, the 1000kms of Spa.

The Frenchman posted a time of 2m 35.47, over 2.5 seconds faster than his nearest Ferrari mounted rival. Care Racing supported Ferrari 550s took four of the first five places in the GT1 class.

Christophe Bouchut:  "It's good to be officially the fastest driver of all the Ferraris 550s! We did a lot of work on the set up of the car this morning, changing a lot of things including springs and tyre compounds in order to try and beat all our competitors. The car is now working very, very well and we are very happy.  If it's raining it will be hard, especially for my team mates, but it will be the same for everybody. We have no choice and it looks as though it will probably be wet but the tyres are good so I am confident."

Despite 20 minutes being timetabled for qualifying, the session was stopped with six minutes remaining due to thick fog around the 6.9km Spa-Francorchamps track. This loss of time most severely affected the Team MenX Ferrari of Tomas Enge, also running on Michelin tyres.

"We made a small set up change on the car as we wanted to try to improve the car further since this morning's practice. We haven't run as much as our other competitors with this car so we are still trying to find the best possible set up. What we did unfortunately didn't work. I could feel it immediately, so we came back in and changed the car back which lost us some time. Then it was thought there was too much fog on the track and the session was stopped when I was about to do my second quick lap. Despite this, we are happy with the car and I'm sure both Robert and I will be good in the race."

With all the new BMS drivers having had an opportunity to familiarise themselves with the Ferrari 550, and having all practiced well for the race tomorrow, the qualifying drivers of the two Pirelli-shod BMS Scuderia Italia Ferraris were left a little perplexed after the end of the session.

Fabrizio Gollin:  "We had no great problem except a lack of grip which is what I don't understand. The set up is okay and, this morning, with a wetter track, the car was really good and felt completely different. This afternoon the traction control was never off, in every gear. But we are all happy with our race set up and I am sure we have a very good car. 

"Yesterday I set the best time in the first sector of the track and I know it's possible to do very well for the whole lap. As for qualifying, we will have to put it down as an experience."

Christian Pescatori:  "It was a very strange qualifying.  With the new tyres, you need a few laps to get some heat into the tyres and then we just didn't get enough time to get a fast lap because the session was stopped due to the fog. Even if qualifying was not great for us, the car is very good and easy to drive and I think tomorrow we will have a good race, hopefully in dry conditions. We have worked a lot towards our race set up, all three of us, and I think we will all be able to do a good, consistent laps times in our stints as long as we have no problems."

GT1 Qualifying Result from Spa: 1st Bouchut / Fomenko / Vasiliev Convers Ferrari 550 Maranello 2:35.470, 2nd Enge / Pergl MenX Ferrari 550 Maranello 2:38.076, 3rd Ruberti / Bobbi / Lemeret GNM Saleen S7 2:39.825, 4th Gollin / Ramos / Cressoni BMS Ferrari 550 Maranello 2:40.837, 5th Pescatori / Bartyan / Seiler BMS Ferrari 550 Maranello 2:41.680, 6th Perret / Emeric / Leuenberger Belmondo Chrysler Viper 2:43.270