ETCC - Spa - Qualifying
2003 European Touring Car Championship
Rounds 11 & 12 - 25/26 July, Spa (Belgium) - QUALIFYING
Priaulx and RBM Celebrate First Pole at Second Home Race
Andy Priaulx gave the Belgian team that runs his BMW Team Great Britain car its
first ever ETCC pole. While Andy was able to use RBM's local knowledge on home
ground to good effect, he still surprised the opposition by setting a time
seven tenths faster than his nearest rival, BMW Team Deutschland's Dirk Müller.
Tonight the other four drivers for the BMW national teams will be studying
their data to try and find out where they lost time, but they were all still in
the top eight in qualifying. None of them could claim any major problems or
mistakes and so they are now hopeful of being closer in what promises to be an
exciting race.
Positions for the BMW drivers are: 1st Andy Priaulx, 2nd Dirk Müller, 5th
Fabrizio Giovanardi, 6th Jörg Müller , 8th Antonio Garcia.
BMW Team Deutschland - Schnitzer Motorsport - Charly Lamm: We are happy to be
back at Spa, which has a special place in our history with touring cars and the
24 hour race. After qualifying we have the first six cars in the championship
in the first six places on the grid, though not in championship order. It was a
question of how best to use the tyres to get a good grid position, and on the
other hand save them for tomorrow's race. We went for the optimum race strategy
and let's hope this will pay for us tomorrow.
Dirk Müller (GER) (1m 32.948s) (carrying 10 kilos ballast): Congratulations to
Andy, this time is really impressive. I was one of the first out on new tyres
in qualifying and when I saw my time I was a bit surprised how quick I was at
this point. Then Andy set his pole time. I think without him in front of me I
would have been satisfied, but now we definitely need to look deeply into the
data. I am happy as the team gave me a good car, like at all the other races.
Jörg Müller (GER) (1m 33.871s (carrying 40 kilos ballast): I am happy with my
car. As usual we had some fine tuning to get the best set-up, but now it feels
quite good. In qualifying we used just one set of tyres so we have two for the
races. I am happy to be sixth on the grid even though I feel my qualifying lap
was not perfect. I have two Alfas in front of me, which I need to pass, and
then will see how my tyres drop off during the race, as the forty kilos makes
them a little more difficult to use.
BMW Team Great Britain - RBM - Bart Mampaey: I am very pleased to have this
first pole for RBM in our ETCC career. We knew we would have a competitive car
here as we have been testing at the track. Andy has been very positive on his
feedback so we have been able to improve the car. I want to thank everyone in
the team for the hard work they did after Donington. I can only congratulate
them.
Andy Priaulx (GBR) (1m 32.217s): I am extremely pleased as we just had a good
day. The team is very experienced here. They know the circuit very well and
gave me a very good car, which has made my job easier. We learnt something from
each change we made, moved forward in a positive way and have been well
prepared. It was a good lap on the new tyres, one of those laps when you
thought maybe you could go a bit faster but if you tried you would probably
overdo it.
BMW Team Italy-Spain - Ravaglia Motorsport - Roberto Ravaglia: I like this
circuit as a driver. However, I am not very happy because of the gap between us
and the BMW of Andy Priaulx. It is a little bit too much. I don't know why and
now we have to try and find out the reason. However, I want to congratulate
Bart Mampaey as him and his team have done a great job.
Fabrizio Giovanardi (ITA) (1m 33.754s): It is difficult to say what happened
today as for me the car was fantastic. The chassis and the set up were very
good. I don't know why I set this time as being a second and a half from the
first BMW is strange for me as I drove hard without any mistakes. I shall try
to push more in the race.
Antonio Garcia (ESP) (1m 34.522s): We are both in the same situation as with
the first set of tyres we set almost the same time. On the second set I lost
about seven tenth in the last chicane, but I think Fabrizio got the best out of
the car. We have still lost one and a half seconds here and I don't know
where.
Results: 1. Andy Priaulx (GBR/BMW 320i) 1m 32.217s, 2. Dirk Müller (GER/BMW
320i) 1m 32.948s, 3. Gabriele Tarquini (ITA/Alfa Romeo) 1m 32.971, 4. Nicola
Larini (ITA/Alfa Romeo) 1m 33.495s, 5. Fabrizio Giovanardi (ITA/BMW 320i) 1m
33.754s, 6. Jörg Müller (GER/BMW 320i) 1m 33.871s.