BTCC: Silverstone qualifying report 2001-06-02

<pre> The British Touring Car Championship Rounds 7 and 8 Silverstone Night Race Saturday 2nd June '01

</pre>

The Peugeot 406 Coupè Race Team had a good qualifying session this afternoon at Silverstone, Northants for the first night race of www.theAA.com <http://www.theAA.com> British Touring Car Championship season. Consistently finding time after each free practice the Coupè's are well on the way to a competitive night-time showdown with the Vauxhalls.

After qualifying 5th for both tonight's SPRINT race and FEATURE race Soper commented, "We are definitely closing in on the Vauxhall's, that was a much better qualifying session for us, I was just 0.182 of a second off Bennett towards the end of the session."

Eaves qualified just behind Soper in 6th position and recorded a best lap time of 1.29.666. After an earlier incident in free practice Dan is confident tonight's racing will make for spectacular viewing between the tail of the Vauxhalls and the 406's.

Mick Linford, Peugeot Motorsport Director commented, "This just proves we are making progress. The times are getting better and I think we will now be racing with the Vauxhall's rather than trying to catch them up. I look forward to some spectacular night racing."

Vauxhall's Yvan Muller takes pole for both SPRINT and FEATURE race this evening.

SPRINT race at: 7.35pm with the Night race (FEATURE) at 10.10pm.

<pre> Results table:

SPRINT RACE

        CL      DRIVER  NAT     CAR     TIME
1       4       Yvan MULLER     FRA     Vauxhall Astra Coupe    1:28.388        16              91.6
2       5       Jason PLATO     GBR     Vauxhall Astra Coupe    1:28.443        18      0.055   91.54
3       9       James THOMPSON  GBR     Vauxhall Astra Coupe    1:28.917        16      0.529   91.05
4       27      Phil BENNETT    GBR     Vauxhall Astra Coupe    1:29.086        15      0.698   90.88
5       44      Steve SOPER     GBR     Peugeot 406 Coupe       1:29.268        17      0.88    90.69
6       22      Dan EAVES       GBR     Peugeot 406 Coupe       1:29.666        17      1.278   90.29
7       41      Kurt LUBY       GBR     Lexus IS200             1:29.909        17      1.521   90.05
8       15      David PINKNEY   GBR     Alfa Romeo 147          1:31.650        9       3.262   88.34
9       16      Tim HARVEY      GBR     Alfa Romeo 147          20:18.538       2       6.64

FEATURE RACE

        CL      DRIVER  NAT     CAR     SESS 1
1       4       Yvan MULLER     FRA     Vauxhall Astra Coupe    1:28.483        16              91.5
2       5       Jason PLATO     GBR     Vauxhall Astra Coupe    1:28.508        18      0.025   91.47
3       27      Phil BENNETT    GBR     Vauxhall Astra Coupe    1:28.758        15      0.275   91.21
4       9       James THOMPSON  GBR     Vauxhall Astra Coupe    1:28.822        16      0.339   91.15
5       44      Steve SOPER     GBR     Peugeot 406 Coupe       1:29.144        17      0.661   90.82
6       22      Dan EAVES       GBR     Peugeot 406 Coupe       1:29.711        17      1.228   90.25
7       41      Kurt LUBY       GBR     Lexus IS200             1:29.929        17      1.446   90.03
8       15      David PINKNEY   GBR     Alfa Romeo 147          1:31.365        9       2.882   88.61
9       16      Tim HARVEY      GBR     Alfa Romeo 147          2:07.518        2       39.035  63.49

-Silverstone