Vitaphone Maserati on top in pre-qualifying

The Vitaphone Maserati  with starting number 2, driven by Miguel Ramos and Alex Müller, came out on top in FIA GT pre-qualifying at the Hungaroring. In the 80 minutes-session, the final chance for teams and drivers to prepare for qualifying, Müller set a fastest lap time of 1:42.542 minutes. The second fastest time was set by Enrique Bernoldi with the Sangari Team Brazil Corvette Z06 he shares with compatriot Roberto Streit. Third place was taken by Michael Bartels and Andrea Bertolini with the number 1-Vitaphone Maserati. "It looks quite good, but I am sure that Karl Wendlinger with the Saleen hasn't yet shown his full potential. However, we are quite well sorted for qualifying", said fastest driver Alex Müller.

Although temperatures are still quite pleasant at the Hungaroring, some clouds emerged above the circuit before pre-qualifying started and sure enough, a light drizzle set in halfway through the session. This meant that the second 40 minutes hardly saw any improvements in the lap times, at least on the top half of the leaderboard. Alex Müller had set the fastest time after 35 minutes and remained in control. There was only two significant incidents to report. Czech driver Adam Lacko ran into the gravel trap at turn 6, 30 minutes into the session. His K-plus-K-Motorsport Saleen S7 was stuck in the gravel, but the marshals were quickly on site to pull the car out and get it going again. Eventually, Lacko and his Swedish team-mate Max Nilsson ended up ninth. And with two minutes remaining, Matech Racing's new Swiss signing Jonathan Hirschi went straight and stopped in the run-off area coming out of turn 15 with the team‚Äôs Ford GT. Hirschi and team-mate Thomas Mutsch were classified tenth.

The fastest lap time in GT2 was set by Emmanuel Collard and Richard Westbrook with the fastest of the two Prospeed Competition Porsche 997 GT RS cars. With their best lap time of 1:47.954 minutes, the French/British pairing ended up 14th overall, 0.110 seconds faster than Niki Cadei and Alvaro Barba Lopez, who were second in class with their AF Corse Ferrari F430. Another Ferrari, the number 95-Pecom Racing entry driven by Argentine drivers Luis Perez Companc and Matias Russo got stuck alongside the track coming out of turn 9 with a quarter of an hour remaining. Companc had to park the car in the grass due to technical problems.