26.07.2003 POOR GRID POSITIONS FOR PRODRIVE FERRARI AS TEAM IS OUTMANOEVERED IN QUALIFYING
| PRODRIVE
FERRARI QUALIFYING REPORT
Tomorrow’s Infineon Grand Prix of Sonoma will surely see some exciting passes and manoeuvres from the Ferrari 550 Maranellos as today’s qualifying session has unfortunately not given the team the grid positions it was hoping for. Jan Magnussen will start 3rd in class, on the 9th row of the grid, while Tomas Enge will start almost at the back of the field, two rows behind the Corvette of Fellows and O’Connell which also became the victim of the same set of circumstances. The Care Racing supported Prodrive Ferrari team elected to wait for a time in the pits after the start of the session because of sand on the track due to an incident at the end of the previous session, and almost ten minutes had elapsed before Magnussen in the #80 car ventured out. He only managed to complete one ‘out’ lap before the session was red flagged. The delay before starting again was considerable and the IMSA officials elected not to add any time to the session to make it up to the full 20 minutes expected. A little over one minute remained for the Dane and Tomas Enge (in car 88) to set a qualifying time so the chequered flag came out almost immediately and the times did not prove possible. Jan Magnussen (DK), car #80: “I am so disappointed. We were finally getting somewhere, learning the car, with things coming together and it’s been ruined by stuff we are not in control of.” Tomas Enge (CZ), car #88: “Well I can’t really say anything about the qualifying as we didn’t get even one lap in. We will just try very hard to have a quick and clean race without any problems, and I am looking forward to battling through the field. We will try to finish as well as we can.” George Howard-Chappell, Team Principal: “We accept the fact that there is a risk of red flags and that sessions might not be extended, and that’s a risk we chose to take. However, we are really very disappointed that – in this case – the qualifying session was not extended as it massively reduces the show we and our competitors can potentially put on for the Series and the fans. “ TEAM OLIVE GARDEN QUALIFYING REPORT Nearly on fumes, with a red fuel warning light glowing, Emanuele Naspetti gunned his Team Olive Garden Ferrari 550 Maranello GTS racer to a lap of 1 minute, 33.266 seconds at Infineon Raceway and captured the second quickest time in a time-shortened GTS qualifying session. It was the second consecutive ALMS race where unusual circumstances marked the qualifications and more heavily favored teams were caught out. Team boss Gabriele Rafanelli sent Naspetti out early in the session to take advantage of the minimal traffic situation. Naspetti's effort on a clear track was nearly stymied when he came up on a slower car, but rather than pass, the view of the #4 Corvette in his mirrors assured him a better strategy was actually to slow down and conserve fuel for a charge "on fumes", let the faster Corvette past, assured that he would have a perfectly clear circuit. Naspetti had already "bagged" his quick lap of 1 minute 33.266 seconds by the time the Veloqx ProDrive team was on their qualifying attempt. An accident involving one of the Porsche GT category cars brought out the red flag. The session ended with Naspetti second to the #4 Corvette and the Jan Magnussen / David Brabham ProDrive entry third with a recorded time of 1 minute, 38.450 seconds. Emanuele Naspetti: "I went out very early to take advantage of the lack of traffic. I had a very, very light fuel load which meant I had very few laps to make it. On my third lap, I came upon a slower car but I saw nobody close behind me so I decided to slow down rather than try to pass the Porsche. I ran a half a lap slowly to conserve fuel and I saw the #4 Corvette approaching me so I let him by easily and picked up the pace sure that I would have a perfectly clear lap. I don't know if I could have gone another lap, actually because I had a fuel warning light on when the red flag came out. It was a strange qualifying session wasn't it?" |
| GRID: INFINEON GRAND
PRIX OF SONOMA
1. 16 P675
1 Butch Leitzinger Lola EX257 8 1:23.085
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