Just ten minutes into the qualifying session, Uwe Alzen secured pole position for the fifth round of the Porsche Mobil1 Supercup in Magny-Cours. The 39-year-old Supercup champion of 1994 lapped the 4.4 kilometre circuit in 1:42.887 minutes. Alzen undercut his 2006 pole-setting time by around four-tenths of a second. Last year he easily took the chequered flag after dominating the race. Starting alongside the German is Damien Faulkner (Ireland). With a gap of just four-hundredths of a second, the reigning champion of the Carrera Cup Great Britain qualified his Porsche 911 GT3 Cup on second place.
Christian Menzel (Germany) takes up the 14-lap race on Sunday from position three. The 36-year-old champion of the 2005 Carrera Cup Deutschland only managed to snatch a top grid position shortly before the end of the qualifying session. After Menzel sat in 16th for some time he steeled himself and in the last five minutes relegated Jeroen Bleekemolen (Netherlands) to start from fourth.
Sharing the third row of the grid are Jiri Janak (Czech Republic), who contests his first season in the Porsche Mobil1 Supercup, and Richard Westbrook (Great Britain). The 31-year-old Briton is the reigning champion of the world’s fastest one-make cup and currently holds the lead in the drivers’ championship by eight points.
Starting from seventh and eighth are two ex-Supercup champions Alessandro Zampedri (Italy) and Patrick Huisman (Netherlands). Zampedri won the championship in 2005, with Huisman claiming the title four times in succession from 1997 to 2000. Rounding off the top ten qualifiers are Belgium’s David Saelens in ninth and Olivier Maximin from France.
The television station “Eurosport” broadcasts the 14-lap race on the Circuit de Nevers live on Sunday (1st July) from 11.20 hours.
Uwe Alzen (pole sitter): “I’m very satisfied. It was a good quali. The vehicle was not nearly as good yesterday as it was today. We worked through the night and made a couple of changes. Today everything ran perfectly.”
Damien Faulkner (second in qualifying): “I’m sorry for my team that we didn’t secure the pole. I am absolutely certain that I had all it takes to be on pole today. Unfortunately I was held up in the third sector. That’s such a shame. My people did a great job and I’ll try to pay them back tomorrow with a podium result.”
Christian Menzel (third in qualifying): “I never dared to dream I could secure third today. We experienced technical problems yesterday during free practice and I hardly got a chance to drive. So I lost a lot of time – Magny-Cours is a real driver circuit and you simply must try things out. Today I threw caution to the wind and the result was third. That’s fantastic! My motto for tomorrow is attack – I’m in the mood for speed.”
Richard Westbrook (sixth in qualifying): “Two things happened today. On my first set of tyres the car wasn’t set-up perfectly, so we worked on that. When I came out with my second fresh set the car was much better – but then I got held up in traffic. I’m so disappointed and hope I can make up several positions tomorrow.”
Qualification result:
1. Uwe Alzen (D), SPS performance, 1:42.887 minutes (154.340 kph)
2. Damien Faulkner (IR), Lechner Racing Team Bahrain, 0.039 seconds behind
3. Christian Menzel (D), tolimit, 0.103
4. Jeroen Bleekemolen (NL), Golden Spike Pertamina Indonesia RT PZE, 0.173
5. Jiri Janak (CZ), Schnbal Enigneering-LKM-Team Jebsen, 0.247
6. Richard Westbrook (GB), HISAQ® Competition, 0.256
7. Alessandro Zampedri (I), Lechner Racing Team Bahrain, 0.284
8. Patrick Huisman (NL), Konrad Motorsport, 0.352
9. David Saelens (B), Team IRWIN SAS, 0.586
10. Olivier Maximin (F), MRS-Team PZ Aschaffenburg, 0.607
11. Martin Ragginger (A), UPS Porsche Junior Team, 0.632
12. Marc Hynes (GB), Team IRWIN SAS, 0.662
13. Jaap van Lagen (NL), Bleekemolen Race Planet PZ Essen, 0.729
14. Nicolas Armindo (F), tolimit, 0.772
15. Sebastiaan Bleekemolen (NL), Bleekemolen Race Planet PZ Essen, 0.792
16. Richard Williams (GB), Racing Team Indonesia PZ Essen RA Beheer, 0.849
17. Lance D. Arnold (D), UPS Porsche Junior Team, 1.102
18. Phil Quaife (GB), Racing Team Indonesia PZ Essen RA Beheer, 1.190
19. Michael Schrey (D), HISAQ® Competition, 1.221
20. Stefan Rosina (SK), Lechner Racing School Team, 1.226
21. Mikael Forsten (FIN), Konrad Motorsport, 1.510
22. Emilio de Villota (E), Konrad Motorsport, 1.530
23. Bernhard ten Brinke (NL), HSF/Porsche Centrum Eindhoven, 1.676
24. Paul van Splunteren (NL), HSF/Porsche Centrum Eindhoven, 1.714
25. William Langhorne (USA), MRS-Team PZ Aschaffenburg, 1.881
26. Maher Algadri (RI), Golden Spike Pertamina Indonesia RT PZE, 5.486
27. Nemunas Dagilis (LT), SPS performance, 5.887
