Spa Francorchamps Proximus 05/08/2001   Friday Final Qualifying   © Janos Limpffin The screens they do lie. While Tassin and v.d. Poele were shown as turning in the fast laps, actually they were Messrs. Hezemans and Naspetti. Terrien was indeed quickest in N-GT ahead of Ortelli. By all accounts these times should stand as it is pouring down heavily just as final qualifying begins. The no. 95 Lamborghini has just wiped out at Blanchimont. The handful of cars out on the track are fools as there is a steady stream of Eau Blanc cascading toward Eau Rouge. Gammon Megaspeed on pole! Well not exactly, but in the early going and possibly for the duration of this wet 45-minute session they may remain on top with a 3:03.310, some 39 seconds off of the obvious pole time of last night. At least this will bring some notoriety to the new Chinese team. On Tuesday morning, Gunnar Jeannette woke up, fell out of bed, dragged a comb across his head, found his way downstairs and didn’t have a smoke, grabbed his helmet and suit, made the jet in seconds flat. Stuart spoke and he went into a dream. A few hours later Gunnar found himself at Spa for the first time, hurtling up through Eau Rouge. Gunnar and I are lodged in Stavelot, some 7 km. Distant. It’s at the other end of the old circuit and it is daunting to consider that our 15-minute commute to Francorchamps represented half of the old lap, the complete circuit having been done by the likes of Rodriguez and Siffert in little over 3 minutes. Of course, young Gunnar is old enough to race, but even old enough to rent a car in order to do the old circuit. I realized that in regaling him with those old yarns was a little like us, ahem, middle aged types hearing of Seaman, Nuvolari, von Brauchitsch, etc. The old circuit was last used long before the young Porsche ace (and for that matter half the other pilotes here) were born. There are 15 minutes remaining in the session and by my count there are four cars on track. The grid of Carsport Holland-Rafanelli-Belmondo-Belmondo-Belmondo-Carsport Holland-PSI Porsche-Silver Racing-JMB-Larbre will prevail. The only surprise in all this is relative laggardness of the Larbre effort. It is not so much a reflection of problems as it is a concentration on race setup. They had hoped to move up a few notches this a.m. but the clouds have decided otherwise. The rain let up ever so slightly with under five minutes remaining in the session and the pole-sitting Carsport Holland Viper carried a long rooster tail behind it enroute to setting the fastest time of the session at 2:50.753, some 13 seconds quicker than the Gammon car. On the penultimate lap one other car managed to dip under three minutes, the no. 79 Seikel N-GT Porsche at 2:56.886. Then under the checkered two others moved into the top group; the no. 58 Freisinger GT3R and the PSI Porsche (their non-turbo entry). Further clarification on yesterday’s drivers; here are the fast qualifiers by car: 1, #3, Hezemans 2, #5, Naspetti 3, #11, Defourny 4, #10, Kumpen 5, #12, Vosse 6, #4, S. Bleekemolen 7, #21, Longin 8, #18, Mollekens 9, #26, Dierick 10, #62, Terrien 11, #7, Bouchut 12, #57, Ortelli 13, #88, Ugeux 14, #58, Verbergt 15, #79, Buttiero 16, #77, Riccitelli 17, #94, Scharmach 18, #55, Neugarten 19, #93, Kremer 20, #54, Peter 21, #82, Franchitti 22, #78, de Groodt 23, #96, Witmeur 24, #66, Horion 25, #95, Velay 26, #80, Vanierschot 27, #81, Jones 28, #59, Haezebrouck 29, #91, Close 30, #17, Goueslard 31, #85, Stevens 32, #87, Duquesnoy 33, #92, “Segolen” 34, #84, A. Herremann 35, #97, Tremblay 36, #89, O’Born 37, #98, Delvaux Pole sitter Mike Hezemans is returning to Spa after a ten-year absence, having driven the 24 Hours under Touring car rules in the past. He considers Spa to be much more physically demanding than Le Mans. He expects all the sequential shift Vipers to be equally competitive. Emmanuele Naspetti brushed aside questions about the 550's reliability over 24 Hours. He expects the newness of the car to be overcome by the fine problem-solving skills of the Rafanelli team. To qualify for the race, all the drivers have to complete three laps of the track in night conditions. All drivers also have to set a lap time within 125% of the average time set by the three fastest cars, and within 110 % of the best time in their category. The 125% cut-off therefore looks as though it could exclude the last five cars in the line up - #92 Porsche 993, #84 993 RSR, #97 993, #89 Renault Spider and #98 Lotus Elise. Weather conditions made qualifying a difficult procedure - you had to get a good lap in early (see Terrien's comment below) - so perhaps this will be taken into account. Mike Hezemans: "We were quickest in all sessions and hopefully also in the race. The gearbox is the weak point for such a long race. We tested our sequential for 30 hours and had no problems." Emanuele Naspetti: "All the teams will have problems here. Eric van de Poele has so much experience that there has been no problem for him to adapt to the car." Didier Defourny: "One (Belmondo) car will follow the leading rhythm and the two others will follow a regular rhythm." David Terrien: "I was lucky to set pole position. You had to be on the track at the right moment with the right tyres." Christophe Bouchut: "The grip was changing continuously (this morning). It was too risky and we did not want to damage the car." Stephane Ortelli: "If conditions stay like this, we could be close to an overall podium finish." Didier Defourny: "It will certainly rain at the start...and also on Sunday morning." - it could be a very difficult Spa 24 Hours, and the teams are aware of the likelihood of problems to come. Copyright ©2000-©2023 TotalMotorSport