Thomas Biagi (Vitaphone Racing Team) claimed pole position in the qualifying session held today at the Paul Armagnac in Nogaro, France. The driver from Bologna stopped the clock at 1’23”763, the exact same time as Austrian Robert Lechner in the second Jet Alliance Aston Martin. What divided the drivers was the fact that the Italian set his time first. Starting from the front could be an important advantage for the Vitaphone Racing driver and his partner, Michael Bartels, especially as they do no have any ballast on board (aside from the 25kg imposed by the Federation on all the MC12s). Today’s was Biagi’s second pole of the year following the one he secured at Zhuhai.
The qualifying session again showed that there is very little to choose between the drivers as the first three were within 29 thousandths of each other and that only three tenths separated the top seven. Given that this is the case, the performance of Christian Montanari and Andrea Bertolini has to be seen in a positive light. Montanari, fourth and. 120 off pole, had 40kg of ballast to deal with after his win at Brno. The reigning champion was seventh,. 338 down and with 60kg of added weight to handle.
Bertolini’s team mate, Alessandro Pier Guidi, qualified ahead of him. He clocked a time of 1’24”095 (. 332 down on Biagi) on his third lap, testimony to the consistency of his Pirelli tyres.
The JMB Racing MC12s also put on a fine display in the Citation Cup. Aucott/Daoudi came home first (and twelfth overall in 1’26”060) with Kutemann/Gosse qualifying in twenty-fifth in (1’28”656).
Tomorrow’s warm up session is planned for 8.30 with the two-hour race getting underway at 13.15. As usual in Italy, the race will be shown live on the Sky Sport satellite channel.
Thomas Biagi: “I cannot say that I ran the perfect lap but it is important to have got what I wanted in taking pole. Tomorrow’s race will be tight and I hope that there will be a good sporting spirit between the teams challenging for the title. I will line up with two Jet Alliance Astons behind me that will have 2006 sized restrictors on them, meaning that they will accelerate better than we will”.
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