ETCC - Rounds 13 and 14 - Spa-Francorchamps - Qualifying
QUALIFYING
Weather: Hot and sunny, 27ºC.
Spa-Francorchamps, 30 July 2004: Four cars in the top five is a good result
for BMW in Spa with BMW Team Deutschland's Jörg Müller claiming pole by nearly
three tenths of a second. His team mate, Dirk Müller, will start from third on
the grid while championship leader, Andy Priaulx, in the BMW Team Great Britain
320i is fourth and BMW Team Italy-Spain's Antonio Garcia is fifth. The only
driver to join this top group was Jordi Gené, who was second in his SEAT.
What was even more amazing about Jörg's time was that he achieved this with the
minimum number of laps possible - three, which included just the one flying
lap. "I have to say a big thank you to my team and engineer who sent me out at
exactly the right time. I had a free circuit and this was the biggest goal
today to do a lap on my own. The car was perfect from the first session and I
think doing both the FIA ETCC and the 24 hours race is an advantage for me. I
only used one set of tyres so have two for the race," said Jörg.
Dirk was not so happy as he was hoping to be closer to Jörg and had calculated
there should only be a tenth between the two of them, as he is on 20 kilos
ballast and Jörg on ten. "I could have done better but at the moment I do not
know why I didn't. For the first time in an ETCC car I went flat out through
Eau Rouge and Blanchimont. This makes me feel great but was not good enough, "
said Dirk.
The times set by the cars were slower than last year and the drivers put this
down to the changes made to the circuit. However, there is an air of confidence
among them as the weights have not really troubled them. Andy is carrying 40
kilos and is happy with his fourth place on the grid. "Position wise I am
really happy. I think we can go faster but we haven't got the ideal balance
yet, even though we are not far off it," he said.
In the Independents class it was not a BMW fastest, with Salvatore Tavano in
his Alfa Romeo taking the honours. However, second in the class was the BMW
320i of Carl Rosenblad (Crawford Racing) just four hundredths of a second
slower. Tom Coronel (Carly Motors) had a dreadful day with a broken driveshaft
in the first free practice and a broken differential in qualifying, so he will
have a lot of cars to overtake tomorrow. His progress will not be helped by the
fact there are extra cars in the race as for the first time this year the FIA
ETCC is running with the German Production Car Championship.
BMW Team Deutschland - Schnitzer Motorsport
No 42 - Jörg Müller (GER) 1st - 2m 32.802s - 10 kilos ballast
No 43 - Dirk Müller (GER) 3rd - 2m 33.143s - 20 kilos ballast
BMW Team Great Britain - RBM
No 11 - Andy Priaulx (GBR) 4th - 2m 33.430s - 40 kilos ballast
BMW Team Belgium Luxembourg - RBM
No 12 - Kurt Mollekens (BEL) 9th - 2m 33.708s
BMW Team Italy-Spain - Ravaglia Motorsport
No 4 - Alex Zanardi (ITA) 11th - 2m 33.904s
No 5 - Antonio Garcia (ESP) 5th - 2m 33.444s
BMW Privateer Teams
Carly Motors - No 20 - Tom Coronel (NLD) 33rd - 3m .12.194s
Carly Motors - No 21 - Paulien Zwart (NLD) 30th - 2m 40.047s
Proteam Motorsport - No 25 - Stefano D'Aste (ITA) 17th - 2m 35.076s
Crawford Racing - No 27 - Carl Rosenblad (SWE) 14th - 2m 34.564s
Results: 1. Jörg Müller (GER/BMW320i ) 2m 32.802s, 2. Jordi Gené (ESP/SEAT) 2m
33,070s, 3. Dirk Müller (GER/BMW 320i) 2m 33.143s, 4. Andy Priaulx (GBR/BMW
320i) 2m 33.430s, 5. Antonio Garcia (ESP/BMW 320i) 2m 33.444s, 6. Gabriele
Tarquini (ITA/Alfa Romeo) 2m 33.477s .
Contacts: Heike Bartsch, BMW Press, mobile +49 (0) 172 8485998,
heike.bartsch@bmw.de
Ann Bradshaw, race press officer, mobile +44 (0) 7713 317006,
annbradshaw@tiscali.co.uk.