Estoril ELMS - 15/07/2001   Qualifying Report   The 'top' three classes went according to form, although some might question that comment regarding GTS. The GT class was by far the most entertaining, and is set up for an excellent class battle tomorrow. Stefan Johansson's only problem was a minor brake one, but he still set the overall pole by nearly three seconds, ahead of the Pescarolo Courage. The French entry had clutch failure in the morning, losing track time. Would it have got close to the Audi? Closer maybe. David Dassau set the pole lap in LMP 675, handily lapping quicker than any other car in the class - because there weren't any. The start could look something like this image, with the other two Prototypes added. Franz Konrad was fastest in the GTS category in the 'works' Saleen, but only 60 thousandths ahead of Bruno Lambert in the RML S7R. The Brookspeed Viper was less than half a second slower, so GTS could see an excellent race between these three entries. The GT class is poised to provide the best racing. On class pole is the PK Sport / Ricardo GT3-RS, Robin Liddell (the Libido Kid) setting the time. He was less than three tenths faster than the Xavier Pompidou / Romain Dumas pair in the Freisinger Porsche, who were less than a tenth faster than Johnny Mowlem / Richard Dean in the faster Skea entry. This car will have a new RS engine fitted for the race. The close times continued - the Seikel Porsche, then the Harlow entry, then Riccitelli in the Racing Engineering car, with small gaps all the way down to the second PK entry in 16th. It's an odd looking grid with Porsches in every spot from seventh to 18th, the Atomic Kitten Corvette looking less than nuclear in 19th. Copyright ©2000-©2023 TotalMotorSport