Reigning FIA GT champions Andrea Bertolini and Michael Bartels took pole for the third round of the GT1 World Championship at Brno this weekend. The Vitaphone Maserati pairing dominated all three sessions of qualifying before Bertolini secured pole with a stunning 1m55.441s.
"Brno is really good for our car, so it's really important we score well this weekend," said Bertolini.
Enrique Bernoldi underlined the MC12's pace around the Czech track by securing second. The ex-Formula 1 racer was the only other driver under 1m56s in the #2 Maserati he shares with Miguel Ramos.
Local star Tomas Enge was best of the rest in the Young Driver AMR Aston Martin DBR9 he will drive with Darren Turner, but Enge was nearly 0.9sec off pole.
Michael Krumm starred for the Sumo Power GT Nissan team, going third quickest in Q1 before securing fourth in the final session.
There were three Maseratis in the top eight, but the final session also included an Aston, a Nissan, a Chevrolet Corvette (Xavier Maasen was fifth) and a Lamborghini Murcielago (sixth for Nicky Pastorelli).
There would have been two Lambos in the session, but the Maxim Martin/Bas Leinders example failed to take part after Martin flew off into the gravel in Q2 immediately after setting a time good enough to qualify for Q3. They will therefore start eighth.
Round one winners Romain Grosjean and Thomas Mutsch will start 10th after Mutsch could not make it into the crucial top eight with his late Q2 effort. Former Renault F1 driver Grosjean had already shown the Matech Ford GT's pace, taking fourth in Q1 with a time that would have been good enough for third in the final session.
The main shock of the first session was the fall of Silverstone winners Warren Hughes and Jamie Campbell-Walter in the second Sumo Power Nissan. Hughes did not make the cut after a late effort was only good enough for 21st.