Spa: Charouz Racing qualifying report

Another third row start for Charouz and Mucke Jan Charouz and Stefan Mucke will once again start from the third row of the grid having confirmed the Charouz Racing System car's position as the fastest of the petrol cars during qualifying for ...

Another third row start for Charouz and Mucke

Jan Charouz and Stefan Mucke will once again start from the third row of the grid having confirmed the Charouz Racing System car's position as the fastest of the petrol cars during qualifying for tomorrow's 1000 km race at Spa Francorchamps. As in the previous two rounds, Stefan Mucke was able to out-qualify all his petrol powered rivals to set the fifth fastest time overall and in the lead LMP1 class.

Today's qualifying session, for the 1000 km Spa Francorchamps, the third round of the 2008 Le Mans Series, had to be stopped twice due to accidents. Twenty six year old Mucke set his best time of 2:02.510 behind the wheel of his Aston Martin powered car just before the ???? NOT SURE WHAT YOU ARE SAYING HERE - BEFORE WHAT??.

The Czech-German pair was fourth quickest in the morning's practice when the German set a time of 2:01.817. With the closest petrol-powered competitor over two seconds slower, the team once again demonstrated a convincing upper hand over its petrol powered rivals.

Stefan Mucke: "Today's qualifying was unfortunately affected a lot by the crashes that caused red flags. The first stop came when I was in the quick lap. After the break I had another go but this time I was held behind slower cars. The tyres were past their best and I did not have a chance to improve. Anyway, we are fastest petrol car and I am pleased with that. Our car was faultless, so we are well prepared for 1000 km tomorrow. The track is quite slippery and it will play major role tomorrow."

Jan Charouz: "We have not had any major issues so far. As I had said before the weekend started I like Spa Francorchamps a lot, so I have been trying to enjoy its beauties, of course, in the fastest possible way. Tomorrow is going to be a hard fight and I hope that we will have a bit of luck that we did not have last time at Monza."

Antonin Charouz, Team principal: "It was a strange qualifying. The red flags had a fundamental impact on it. However, we are where we should be - the best petrol powered car. Our lap time was slower than in the free practice because Stefan did not have conditions for at least one really quick lap."

George Howard-Chappell, Technical Director of Aston Martin Racing: "While I'm pleased with the team's performance today and Stefan drove well to qualify the car in fifth, from an Aston Martin Racing perspective being the fastest of the petrol-powered cars yet still almost 4.5 seconds off pole is not where we expect to be. The circuit here at Spa really demonstrates the performance advantage enjoyed by the diesel-powered cars."