Jos Verstappen on pole position in Monza
Published on 27 April 2008 by Niels Hendrix
The team Van Merksteijn Motorsport by Equipe Verschuur continues its successful streak in the Le Mans Series. In qualifying for tomorrow's second round of the season at Monza, ex-Formula 1 driver Jos Verstappen set a fastest lap time of 1.36.842 minutes at the 5.793 metres long circuit, putting the team's Porsche RS Spyder on pole position in its class for the second time this season.
In the overall classification, the Van Merksteijn Motorsport-Porsche RS Spyder ranked in tenth place as the fastest car from the LMP2 category, even in front of five cars from the more powerful LMP1 class.
The three Porsche RS Spyders dominated proceedings in the 20 minutes' qualifying session for the LMP2 prototypes and went on to take a clean sweep of the first three places in the category on the starting grid for tomorrow's race. Just like in Barcelona three weeks ago, the white and purple Van Merksteijn Motorsport-Porsche was fastest of them all. Jos Verstappen, who knows the Monza circuit very well from his days in Formula 1, beat his fellow countryman Jan Lammers in the Horag-Porsche to pole position in the class by 1.003 seconds.
As it was expected, the Grand Prix circuit of Monza with its long straights and its subsequent emphasis on top speed left the less powerful LMP2 prototypes without a realistic chance against the LMP1 cars with their bigger engines. "Our car is more suited for short and twisty tracks, but in general, the balance was good", said Jos Verstappen after qualifying. "You can gain some time under braking when the balance of the car is good and that is what we focussed on during the free practice sessions. My qualifying lap was good as well, I didn't make any mistakes." Asked for his expectations about the race, Verstappen commented: "Our car is particularly good in corners and under braking, although it is fast in terms of speed as well. The battle in the class will be very hard, especially with the other Porsches."
Team principal, Peter van Merksteijn was also quite happy with the results achieved by the team in Monza so far. "We were fastest in our category in all the three free practice sessions and I am confident that we have worked out a good set-up for the race." The Dutchman is quite impressed by the Monza circuit with its great tradition: "Driving here is an incredible experience."
The 173 lap race with a maximum duration of six hours will start tomorrow at 12.50 pm. Eurosport will be reporting from 12.45 till 13.30 h. A review will be broadcast at 11 pm by the pan-European sports channel. Motors TV is broadcasting the entire race live.
The results of the qualifying of the 1000 km of Monza:
Overall:
1 7 Team Peugeot Total Peugeot 908 Hdi-FAP LMP1 1:31.470 - 2 8 Team Peugeot Total Peugeot 908 Hdi-FAP LMP1 1:31.957 0.487 3 1 Audi Sport Team Joest Audi R10 TDI LMP1 1:33.193 1.723 4 2 Audi Sport Team Joest Audi R10 TDI LMP1 1:33.330 1.860 5 10 Charouz Racing System Lola Aston Martin LMP1 1:34.170 2.700 6 6 Team Oreca Matmut Courage-Oreca Judd LMP1 1:35.303 3.833 7 14 Creation AIM Creation Aim LMP1 1:35.869 4.399 8 5 Team Oreca Matmut Courage-Oreca Judd LMP1 1:35.891 4.421 9 16 Pescarolo Sport Pescarolo Judd LMP1 1:36.117 4.647 10 34 Van Merksteijn Motorsport Porsche RS Spyder LMP2 1:36.842 5.372 11 20 Epsilon Euskadi Epsilon Euskadi Judd LMP1 1:37.022 5.552 12 15 Creation AIM Creation - Aim LMP1 1:37.062 5.592 13 17 Pescarolo Sport Pescarolo Judd LMP1 1:37.229 5.759 14 27 Horag Racing Porsche RS Spyder LMP2 1:37.845 6.375 15 31 Team Essex Porsche RS Spyder LMP2 1:37.957 6.487 16 33 Speedy Racing Team Sebah Lola Judd LMP2 1:38.180 6.710 17 32 Barazi Epsilon Zytek 07S LMP2 1:38.570 7.100 18 18 Rollcentre Racing Pescarolo Judd LMP1 1:38.619 7.149 19 25 RML Lola MG LMP2 1:38.697 7.227 20 41 Trading Performance Zytek 07S LMP2 1:39.861 8.391 21 40 Quifel ASM Team Lola AER LMP2 1:39.998 8.528 22 35 Saulnier Racing Pescarolo Judd LMP2 1:40.174 8.704 23 46 Embassy Racing WF01 Zytek LMP2 1:40.196 8.726 24 45 Embassy Racing WF01 Zytek LMP2 1:40.385 8.915 25 4 Saulnier Racing Pescarolo Judd LMP1 1:40.865 9.395 26 44 Kruse Schiller Motorsport Lola Mazda LMP2 1:41.007 9.537 27 26 Bruichladdich Radical Radical AER LMP2 1:41.785 10.315 28 72 Luc Alphand Aventures Corvette C6.R LMGT1 1:44.102 12.632 29 59 Team Modena Aston Martin DBR9 LMGT1 1:44.389 12.919 30 30 Racing Box Lucchini Judd LMP2 1:44.471 13.001 31 73 Luc Alphand Aventures Corvette C6.R LMGT1 1:45.507 14.037 32 55 IPB Spartak Racing Lamborghini Murcielago LMGT1 1:46.243 14.773 33 96 Virgo Motorsport Ferrari F430 GT LMGT2 1:49.006 17.536 34 77 Team Felbermayr-Proton Porsche 997 GT3 RSR LMGT2 1:49.227 17.757 35 90 Farnbacher Racing Ferrari F430 GT LMGT2 1:49.839 18.369 36 76 Imsa Performance Matmut Porsche 997 GT3 RSR LMGT2 1:50.008 18.538 37 99 JMB Racing Ferrari F430 GT LMGT2 1:50.346 18.876 38 91 Farnbacher Racing Porsche 997 GT3 RSR LMGT2 1:50.401 18.931 39 95 James Watt Automotive Porsche 997 GT3 RSR LMGT2 1:50.953 19.483 40 75 Imsa Performance Matmut Porsche 997 GT3 RSR LMGT2 1:51.057 19.587 41 85 Snoras Spyker Squadron Spyker C8 Laviolette LMGT2 1:51.217 19.747 42 88 Team Felbermayr-Proton Porsche 997 GT3 RSR LMGT2 1:51.468 19.998 43 94 Speedy Racing Team Spyker C8 Laviolette LMGT2 1:52.330 20.860 44 98 JMB Racing Ferrari F430 GT LMGT2 1:53.174 21.704
By class:
1 7 Team Peugeot Total Peugeot 908 Hdi-FAP LMP1 1:31.470 - 2 8 Team Peugeot Total Peugeot 908 Hdi-FAP LMP1 1:31.957 0.487 3 1 Audi Sport Team Joest Audi R10 TDI LMP1 1:33.193 1.723 4 2 Audi Sport Team Joest Audi R10 TDI LMP1 1:33.330 1.860 5 10 Charouz Racing System Lola Aston Martin LMP1 1:34.170 2.700 6 6 Team Oreca Matmut Courage-Oreca Judd LMP1 1:35.303 3.833 7 14 Creation AIM Creation Aim LMP1 1:35.869 4.399 8 5 Team Oreca Matmut Courage-Oreca Judd LMP1 1:35.891 4.421 9 16 Pescarolo Sport Pescarolo Judd LMP1 1:36.117 4.647 10 20 Epsilon Euskadi Epsilon Euskadi Judd LMP1 1:37.022 5.552 11 15 Creation AIM Creation - Aim LMP1 1:37.062 5.592 12 17 Pescarolo Sport Pescarolo Judd LMP1 1:37.229 5.759 13 18 Rollcentre Racing Pescarolo Judd LMP1 1:38.619 7.149 14 4 Saulnier Racing Pescarolo Judd LMP1 1:40.865 9.395
1 34 Van Merksteijn Motorsport Porsche RS Spyder LMP2 1:36.842 - 2 27 Horag Racing Porsche RS Spyder LMP2 1:37.845 1.003 3 31 Team Essex Porsche RS Spyder LMP2 1:37.957 1.115 4 33 Speedy Racing Team Sebah Lola Judd LMP2 1:38.180 1.338 5 32 Barazi Epsilon Zytek 07S LMP2 1:38.570 1.728 6 25 RML Lola MG LMP2 1:38.697 1.855 7 41 Trading Performance Zytek 07S LMP2 1:39.861 3.019 8 40 Quifel ASM Team Lola AER LMP2 1:39.998 3.156 9 35 Saulnier Racing Pescarolo Judd LMP2 1:40.174 3.332 10 46 Embassy Racing WF01 Zytek LMP2 1:40.196 3.354 11 45 Embassy Racing WF01 Zytek LMP2 1:40.385 3.543 12 44 Kruse Schiller Motorsport Lola Mazda LMP2 1:41.007 4.165 13 26 Bruichladdich Radical Radical AER LMP2 1:41.785 4.943 14 30 Racing Box Lucchini Judd LMP2 1:44.471 7.629
1 72 Luc Alphand Aventures Corvette C6.R LMGT1 1:44.102 - 2 59 Team Modena Aston Martin DBR9 LMGT1 1:44.389 0.287 3 73 Luc Alphand Aventures Corvette C6.R LMGT1 1:45.507 1.405 4 55 IPB Spartak Racing Lamborghini Murcielago LMGT1 1:46.243 2.141
1 96 Virgo Motorsport Ferrari F430 GT LMGT2 1:49.006 - 2 77 Team Felbermayr-Proton Porsche 997 GT3 RSR LMGT2 1:49.227 0.221 3 90 Farnbacher Racing Ferrari F430 GT LMGT2 1:49.839 0.833 4 76 Imsa Performance Matmut Porsche 997 GT3 RSR LMGT2 1:50.008 1.002 5 99 JMB Racing Ferrari F430 GT LMGT2 1:50.346 1.340 6 91 Farnbacher Racing Porsche 997 GT3 RSR LMGT2 1:50.401 1.395 7 95 James Watt Automotive Porsche 997 GT3 RSR LMGT2 1:50.953 1.947 8 75 Imsa Performance Matmut Porsche 997 GT3 RSR LMGT2 1:51.057 2.051 9 85 Snoras Spyker Squadron Spyker C8 Laviolette LMGT2 1:51.217 2.211 10 88 Team Felbermayr-Proton Porsche 997 GT3 RSR LMGT2 1:51.468 2.462 11 94 Speedy Racing Team Spyker C8 Laviolette LMGT2 1:52.330 3.324 12 98 JMB Racing Ferrari F430 GT LMGT2 1:53.174 4.168
Niels Hendrix
