17.10.2003 FERRARI CLAIM A 1-2-3 IN GTS QUALIFYING FOR TOMORROW'S PETIT LE MANS

David Brabham on his way to GTS pole position at Road AtlantaOn his last lap of qualifying, David Brabham’s Prodrive Ferrari 550 Maranello this afternoon claimed pole position in the GTS category for tomorrow’s 1000 mile Petit Le Mans race.

His team-mates Tomas Enge in car 88 and Jérôme Policand in car 08 were 3rd and 5th in class respectively, largely the result of some difficult track conditions due to a last minute shower prior to the start of the qualifying session.

In damp but rapidly drying conditions, Brabham posted a fastest time of 1m 26.338, two tenths of a second ahead of the Rafanelli Ferrari 550 which will line up alongside him on the first row of the GTS grid.  Just behind the Australian will be the second Prodrive-prepared Ferrari of Tomas Enge, and behind him the third Ferrari 550 from the Care Racing and Prodrive Ferrari stable.

The team used the time in between the afternoon and night practice sessions to make substantial set up changes to the car, and all three cars showed they were able to run at a consistent race pace. Enge this morning set the timing screens alight with a time of 1m 17.931, comprehensively beating the previous GTS track record by nearly a second.

David Brabham:  “It’s great to be on pole here and I must dedicate this to the team as they’ve gone through quite a lot this week, done a lot of repairs and engine changes. I went over a kerb this morning and it seemed to do something to the engine so they changed it as a precaution after the practice session ended, and got me out again in good time for this afternoon. We started on wets as the track was still quite damp. The car ran perfectly and, once the track started drying, we came into the pits with basically three Michelin tyre options open to us. We chose the intermediates, which seemed to be the right choice, and went out again with about 9 minutes of the session to go. I was slowly gathering grip each lap and on the last lap knew I had to really go for it. It was just enough – very pleasing for all of us.”    

Tomas Enge:  “I am disappointed with my qualifying session. We went out on wets and came in to change to intermediates maybe one lap too late. I spun on my first lap out on the cold tyres and then, when there was some heat in the tyres, I had traffic and could not get a good time. I wish I had stayed on the other tyres as I am sure I could have had pole position.”

Jérôme Policand:  “After three laps on our wet tyres I could feel that the rears were not good any longer so I came in. I asked the team if I was to stop or not, and maybe we came in a little bit late. For sure the intermediates were the right choice as the car was nice to drive once the tyres heated up, but I got traffic on my last two laps and when it was clear again the chequered flag was out.”   

Petit Le Mans, Road Atlanta / 2.54 miles, October 15-18, 2003 / Braselton, Georgia: Qualifying

Pos Class Pos Car No. Class Drivers Best Time Speed In Lap Diff No. Laps Make, 1 1 1 LMP900/GTP Biela / Werner 1:11.738 127.464 13 -.--- 14 Audi R8, 2 1 16 LMP675 Weaver / Leitzinger / Wallace 1:12.450 126.211 13 0.712 13 Lola EX257/AER, 3 2 38 LMP900/GTP Herbert / Lehto / Johansson 1:12.700 125.777 14 0.962 14 Audi R8, 4 3 10 LMP900/GTP Beretta / Saelens / Papis 1:13.290 124.765 11 1.552 12 Panoz LMP01/EPP, 5 2 20 LMP675 C. Dyson / Block / de Radigues 1:13.775 123.944 12 2.037 13 Lola EX257/AER, 6 4 11 LMP900/GTP Jeannette / Leuenberger / Maxwell 1:14.166 123.291 12 2.428 14 Panoz LMP01/EPP, 7 3 37 LMP675 Jon Field / Dayton / Conner 1:14.930 122.034 12 3.192 12 Lola EX257/Judd, 8 5 30 LMP900/GTP C. Field / Durand / Oberto 1:15.550 121.032 11 3.812 12 R & S MKIII C/Elan, 9 6 12 LMP900/GTP Lewis / Drissi / Patterson 1:17.863 117.437 10 6.125 11 R & S MK III C/Lincoln, 10 4 18 LMP675 Workman / Davis / Bradley 1:24.019 108.833 4 12.281 7 Lola B2K/40/Nissan, 11 5 64 LMP675 Downing / Katz / Terada 1:24.582 108.108 8 12.844 8 Welter Racing/Mazda, 12 1 80 GTS Magnussen / Brabham / Davidson 1:26.338 105.909 12 14.600 13 Ferrari 550 Maranello, 13 2 0 GTS Naspetti / Schiattarella / Camathias 1:26.575 105.619 11 14.837 12 Ferrari 550 Maranello, 14 3 88 GTS Kox / Enge / Menu 1:27.694 104.272 3 15.956 12 Ferrari 550 Maranello, 15 1 23 GT Maassen / Luhr 1:29.391 102.292 10 17.653 11 Porsche 911 GT3 RS, 16 4 4 GTS Gavin / Collins / Pilgrim 1:29.574 102.083 10 17.836 10 Chevrolet Corvette C5-R, 17 5 08 GTS Dor / Lammers / Policand 1:29.972 101.632 4 18.234 12 Ferrari 550 Maranello, 18 2 24 GT Bernhard / Bergmeister / Dumas 1:30.212 101.361 11 18.474 12 Porsche 911 GT3 RS, 19 6 3 GTS Fellows / O'Connell / Freon 1:30.230 101.341 10 18.492 11 Chevrolet Corvette C5-R, 20 3 43 GT Hindery / Baron / Rockenfeller 1:30.376 101.177 10 18.638 11 Porsche 911 GT3 RS, 21 4 60 GT Liddell / Caffi / Warnock 1:30.864 100.634 8 19.126 9 Porsche 911 GT3 RS, 22 7 71 GTS Belloc / Weickardt / Cayrolle 1:31.310 100.142 11 19.572 13 Dodge Viper GTS-R, 23 5 6 GT Auberlen / Stuck / Said 1:32.848 98.484 10 21.110 11 BMW/E46 M3, 24 6 31 GT Petersen / Stanton / Mowlen 1:33.236 98.074 3 21.498 12 Porsche 911 GT3 RS, 25 7 79 GT Jackson / Murry / Cunningham 1:33.864 97.418 4 22.126 12 Porsche 911 GT3 RS, 26 8 35 GT Kelleners / Lazzaro 1:34.099 97.174 8 22.361 9 Ferrari 360 Modena, 27 9 68 GT Gleason / Bunting / Ehret 1:35.595 95.654 10 23.857 11 Porsche 911 GT3 RS, 28 10 63 GT Lewis / Borcheller / Law 1:35.656 95.593 1 23.918 10 Ferrari 360 Modena, 29 11 67 GT Zwart / Donner / Nastasi 1:35.933 95.317 3 24.195 10 Porsche 911 GT3 RS, 30 12 66 GT Buckler / Wagner / Long 1:36.005 95.245 7 24.267 12 Porsche 911 GT3RS, 31 13 61 GT Rice / Groom / Kapudija 1:36.353 94.901 7 24.615 9 Porsche 911 GT3 RS, 32 14 89 GT Negri / Frisselle / Pumpelly 1:36.419 94.836 6 24.681 10 Porsche 911 GT3RS, 33 15 52 GT Burgess / Collin / Bagnall 1:36.602 94.656 4 24.864 8 Porsche 911 GT3 RS, 34 16 03 GT Foster / Nyberg /Skelton 1:37.375 93.905 5 25.637 6 Panoz Esperante GT-LM/Elan, 35 6 56 LMP675 Willman / McMurry / Rudolph 1:40.213 91.246 1 28.475 2 Pilbeam MP91/Willman 6, 36 17 42 GT Jay Policastro / Joe Policastro / Pobst 1:40.445 91.035 4 28.707 5 Porsche 911 GT3 RS, 37 18 29 GT Salazar / Alexander -.--- - - -.--- 0 Ferrari 360 Modena, 38 19 28 GT Gregoire / Earle / Shearer -.--- - - -.--- 0 Ferrari 360 Modena
Team Olive Garden were delighted with their qualifying performance for the Petit Le Mans