Jeroen Bleekemolen (Netherlands) secured the fastest qualifying time at the final round of this year’s Porsche Mobil1 Supercup on the legendary Spa-Francorchamps circuit. In the first flying lap of qualifying the 25-year-old former DTM pilot set pole in 2:24.869 minutes. For Bleekemolen this marks his fifth pole position of the season.
Trailing by three-hundredths of a second, Richard Westbrook (Great Britain) claimed the second position on the grid for the 14-lap race. With this, the reigning Supercup champion and current points leader has an excellent starting position to defend his title. More so, as his closest rival in the fight for the title, Damien Faulkner, wasn’t able to qualify his 911 GT3 Cup better than fourth. Should Westbrook cross the finish line on Sunday ahead of his Irish opponent, then the title is his. Should he finish behind Faulkner the results of the placings are decisive. If Damien Faulkner were to win (20 points), fifth position (12 points) would be enough for the Brit to become champion. Should the two share the same points then the number of victories over the course of the season are decisive.
Sandwiched between the two title aspirants in third is quadruple Supercup champion Patrick Huisman (Netherlands). Positions five and six are occupied by Huisman’s compatriot Jaap van Lagen and Uwe Alzen (Germany). David Saelens (Belgium) pocketed seventh at his home race ahead of UPS-Porsche junior driver Martin Ragginger (Austria). Ninth in qualifying went to Nicolas Armindo from France, followed by Richard Williams (Great Britain) and Christian Menzel (Germany).
Altfrid Heger (Germany), the first ever Porsche Supercup champion back in 1993, qualified his Porsche on 23rd. The 49-year-old takes the wheel of the #88 VIP-Carrera as a guest of Porsche AG.
Each of the 30 Porsches to start will have black ribbons on the front to commemorate Marcel Manthey. The 18-year-old son of the UPS-Porsche team boss Olaf Manthey died last Monday in a car accident.
The television station “Eurosport” broadcasts the championship round live on Sunday, 16th September, from 11.15 hours. Moreover, “Eurosport” shows highlights of the race on Sunday evening in its “Motorsports Weekend” programme.
Jeroen Bleekemolen (pole-sitter): “The qualifying session again went very well. That makes five pole positions from eight races – not bad! I hope we can find an equally good set-up for the race as we found for the qualifying.”
Richard Westbrook (second qualifier): “Second on the grid is great. It’s a super starting position for the race. Although I’m a bit disappointed I didn’t get pole. My vehicle was perfectly prepared. The team did a great job. I’m sorry I didn’t manage it today, but tomorrow is another day. We’ve worked out a good strategy so I’m feeling optimistic.”
Patrick Huisman (third qualifier): “To be honest I hadn’t expected such a good qualifying result. What a shame we couldn’t have done this more often over the season. But that just makes it more important to finish the 2007 season with a good result.“
Altfrid Heger (23rd qualifier): “I turned my quickest time in the last lap on used tyres. This just shows that I didn’t manage to use the tyres at their peak. It’s not exactly what I had hoped for. I simply need more time to find the right set-up for the car. To drive this 911 in Spa is an incredible buzz. It’s wonderful to be back in the Supercup.”
Qualifying result:
1. Jeroen Bleekemolen (NL), Golden Spike Pertamina Indonesia RT PZE, 2:24.869 minutes (174.049 kph)
2. Richard Westbrook (GB), HISAQ® Competition, 0.031 seconds behind
3. Patrick Huisman (NL), Konrad Motorsport, 0.088
4. Damien Faulkner (IR), Lechner Racing Team Bahrain, 0.279
5. Jaap van Lagen (NL), Bleekemolen Race Planet PZ Essen, 0.347
6. Uwe Alzen (D), SPS performance, 0.374
7. David Saelens (B), Team IRWIN SAS, 0.391
8. Martin Ragginger (A), UPS Porsche Junior Team, 0.616
9. Nicolas Armindo (F), tolimit, 0.633
10. Richard Williams (GB), Racing Team Indonesia PZ Essen RA Beheer, 0.689
11. Christian Menzel (D), tolimit, 0.811
12. Alessandro Zampedri (I), Lechner Racing Team Bahrain, 0.917
13. Olivier Maximin (F), MRS-Team PZ Aschaffenburg, 1.018
14. Lance D. Arnold (D), UPS Porsche Junior Team, 1.089
15. Jiri Janak (CZ), Schnabl Enigneering-LKM-Team Jebsen, 1.356
16. Phil Quaife (GB), Racing Team Indonesia PZ Essen RA Beheer, 1.455
17. Stefan Rosina (SK), Lechner Racing School Team, 1.701
18. Phil Bastiaans (NL), HISAQ® Competition, 1.732
19. Marc Hynes (GB), Team IRWIN SAS, 1.804
20. Sebastiaan Bleekemolen (NL), Bleekemolen Race Planet PZ Essen, 1.931
21. Mikael Forsten (FI), Konrad Motorsport, 2.089
22. Markus Palttala (FI), Konrad Motorsport, 2.291
23. Altfrid Heger (D), Porsche AG, 2.378
24. Paul van Splunteren (NL), HSF/Porsche Centrum Eindhoven, 2.617
25. Darryl O’Young (HK), Schnabl Engineering-LKM-Team Jebsen, 2.647
26. Marc Benz (CH), SPS performance, 2.675
27. William Langhorne (USA), MRS-Team PZ Aschaffenburg, 2.751
28. Jürgen van Hover (B), Bongou/Speedlover/Duindistel, 3.859
29. Simon Frederiks (NL), HSF/Porsche Centrum Eindhoven, 5.225
Maher Algadri (RI), Golden Spike Pertamina Indonesia RT PZE, 14.437
