Maserati has clearly signalled its intent to challenge for its fourth win in the prestigious Spa 24 Hours after the trio of MC12s entered by the Vitaphone team locked out the first three positions on the grid for tomorrow's endurance classic.

German driver Alex Müller claimed pole position in the #2 Vitaphone Racing Maserati MC 12, his second pole in a row in the FIA GT Championship after he claimed the top spot in the last round of the series at Oschersleben in late June. He will share the #2 MC12 with three experienced sports car drivers Miguel Ramos, Pedro Lamy and Eric Van De Poele for the race.

Joining Müller on the front row will be Alessandro Pierguidi who set set the second fastest time in the #33 MC12 which is an additional entry from the German team and is running under the Vitaphone Racing Team DHL banner this weekend. Alongside Pierguidi in the #33 car will be Stéphane Lemeret, Carl Rosenblad and Vincent Vosse. The third fastest qualifying time was set by Andrea Bertolini, the Italian pilot placing the #1 Vitaphone Racing Team in third on the grid. Bertolini will share the car with the regular team mate Michael Bartels (the pair are the championship points leaders going into Spa) while the line-up is completed by Stéphane Sarrazin and Alexandre Negrao.

Maserati's bid for honours at Spa this weekend will be helped by a very weak GT1 grid for this year's race, with the rest of the top class being made up of teams of questionable ability which count only a smattering of professional drivers in their ranks. Alongside the #1 MC12 on row will be the #8 Sangari Corvette Z06, with the #3 SRT Corvette Z06 next up in fifth. Then comes the first of the 2010-generation cars, the #40 Marc VDS Racing Ford GT which claimed a strong sixth place in the hands of Bas Leinders.

The #4 PK Carsport Corvette Z06 is down in an unimpressive seventh place on the grid, this weekend in the hands of a mixed Dutch and Belgian driver line-up made up of Mike Hezemans, Anthony Kumpen, Kurt Mollekens and Jos Menten, but one place ahead of the other 2010 specification car, the official Nissan-entered GT-R. Finally in GT1, the best time posted by the Saleen S7 Twin Turbo entered by Austrian outfit Full Speed Racing was more than 20 seconds off the Müller's quickest time and it will start way down in 32nd place meaning that the car will have to fight its way through the hordes of slower GT2, G2 and G3 class runners before it can hope to get in amongst the leading cars.

In the GT2, Gianmaria Bruni swept to pole yesterday in the #50 AF Corse Ferrari F430 GT2. This is the experienced Italian's seventh pole position in the series, and his second at Spa following his fastest time in the 24 hour endurance race's qualifying session two years ago. He qualified ahead of the #55 CRS Racing Ferrari 430 GT2, with Briton Tim Mullen setting the time. The #59 Trackspeed Porsche 997 GT3 RSR was the best of the Porsche runners in third, with Jörg Bergmeister at the wheel. The best time in the G2 class was set by Phoenix Racing and their Audi R8 LMS with Marcel Fässler posting the time while the Matech GT Racing led out the G3 runners with Thomas Mutsch setting the best time in the Ford GT3.