Round 5 - Combined Qualifying Practice

Panoz Leads The Way In Italy

Vallelunga, Italy - Saturday 1st September 2001: The Panoz LMP1 Roadster of Gary Formato and Richard Dean topped the times in the one hour combined qualifying practice.  The Lansera Racing Le Mans Prototype posted a time seven tenths faster than yesterdays test session, 2.5 seconds quicker than the second placed Saleen of Ian McKellar and Chris Goodwin.  The RML Saleen headed up the times in the GTS class leaving the Konrad Motorsport Saleen of Franz Konrad and Walter Brun trailing by over a second. 

A battle royal raged in the GT class with the Freisinger Motorsport Porsche 996 of Romain Dumas and Cyril Chateau holding off the challenges of PK Sports Robin Liddell and Mike Youles, Cirtek Motorsports Tony Littlejohn and Xavier Pompidou, Harlow Motorsports Terry Rymer and Magnus Wallinder and Paco Orti Racings Paco Orti and Wolfgang Kaufmann.  In fact these five Porsches were covered by only six tenths of a second with the LMP675 Debora splitting this little pack of cars in 6th place overall.  The top ten was rounded out by the Cirtek Motorsport GTS Porsche 911 GT2 of Rob Schirle, Steve Stokoe and Charlie Cox.  The Atomic Kitten Chevrolet Corvette failed to set a time when the car suffered a clutch failure early in the session but the team have indicated that the car will be on the track for this afternoons qualifying.

Qualifying for tomorrows final round of the 2001 European Le Mans Series will take place at 15:30 (local time) in a combined 45 minute session.

Combined Qualifying Practice - 1 Hour

1 - LMP900 - R Dean / G Formato - Panoz LMP1 Roadster - 1m07.574
2 - GTS - I McKellar Jnr / C Goodwin - Saleen S7R - +2.690s
3 - GTS - W Brun / F Konrad - Saleen S7R - +3.750s
4 - GT - R Dumas / C Chateau - Porsche 996 GT3 R - +7.544s
5 - GT - R Liddell / M Youles - Porsche 911 GT3 RS - +7.602s
6 - LMP675 - F Jackubowski / X Bich - Debora - +7.780s
7 - GT - T Littlejohn / X Pompidou - Porsche 996 GT3 R - +7.950s
8 - GT - T Rymer / M Wallinder - Porsche 911 GT3 R - +8.027s
9 - GT - P Orti / W Kaufmann - Porsche 911 GT3 R - +8.209s
10 - GTS - S Stokoe / C Cox / R Schirle - Porsche 911 GT2 - +8.814s

- ENDS -