Brno 17 May

Under leaden skies at the Czech circuit of Brno the Ferrari Challenge cars took to the track this afternoon to qualify for the first race. With the new system of grid penalties in place for success (1st =-6 places; 2nd = -4 places; 3rd =-2places) in Monza, a good qualifying position was more important than ever before.
It was Vincenzo Sauto who took pole position in the Coppa Shell category with a 2:06.776 a time he achieved on just the second of his four laps of running. With a time of 2:06.968, leaving him second on the grid is Erich Prinoth. Although David Gostner qualified with the third fastest time (2:07.071) he will start his race 5th on the grid. His place is take by Fons Scheltema from the Kessel Racing Team – it was a great result for Kessel who also have cars in fourth and sixth positions. Lebed who qualified 5th will start 9th and Adamski will be demoted from 7th to 13th.
Meanwhile in the qualifying for the Trofeo Pirelli Race 1, the 1st place was taken by Daniel Mancinelli with a time of 2:05.784, just fractions of a second ahead of Dario Caso (2:05.850). Caso however will start on the pole position in the race as Mancinelli will be demoted to 3rd. Second place on the grid will be occupied by Giacomo Stratta (2:06.468).
Very few laps were completed by many of the top runners, instead they opted to save their selected tyres for the race on this highly abrasive track, which, many drivers noted, is already covered in tyre debris off line.
Qualifying for race two in the Coppa Shell will take to the track tomorrow morning at 9:35am followed by the qualifying for Trofeo Pirelli at 11.20am.