Nissan JR Motorsports edge tight pre-qualifying

Nissan JR Motorsport pairing Richard Westbrook and Peter Dumbreck emerged triumphant in an extremely tight battle in pre-qualifying which saw the top four separated by less than one tenth of a second.

The No 37 All-Inkl Lamborghini of Dominik Schwager and Nicky Pastorelli had held top spot after 30 minutes of running, but were demoted at the halfway stage as the Nissan of Westbrook and Dumbreck made its charge - edging out the Lamborghini by just 0.038s.

Basseng and Winkelhock then came under pressure from the No 41 Marc VDS Ford GT of Maxime Martin and Frederic Makowiecki, breaking into the top three for the first time this weekend. Martin fell agonisingly short however, finishing little more than three thousandths of a second down the road in third.

All-Inkl's second Lamborghini, piloted by Marc Basseng and Markus Winkelhock, then completed an extraordinarily close top four as they recorded a 1:52.858s best - meaning eight hundredths of a second covered the first four runners.

The No 8 Aston Martin of Stefan Mucke and Darren Turner, pacesetters in free practice, finished fifth fastest ahead of Corvette Exim Bank Team China, meaning all five marques were represented in the top six finishers.

There was bad news for the no 40 Ford GT Marc VDS of Bas Leinders and Marc Hennerici, which was unable to complete a lap after the team opted to change the engine following free practice. Aston Martin's No 4 Hexis car was also unable to register a lap during the 80 minutes.

Info: FIA GT1 World Championship/.Acreditated and Autorized Media Press.

Pre-Qualifying
Pos	Car	Class	Drivers	Car	Time	Laps	Gap	Avg speed
1	22	GT1	Peter Dumbreck / Richard Westbrook	Nissan GT-R	01:52.777	24		70
2	37	GT1	Nicky Pastorelli / Dominik Schwager	Lamborghini Murcielago 670 R-S	01:52.815	21	0.038	71
3	41	GT1	Maxime Martin / Frederic Makowiecki	Ford GT Matech	01:52.846	27	0.069	71
4	38	GT1	Markus Winkelhock / Marc Basseng	Lamborghini Murcielago 670 R-S	01:52.858	25	0.081	70
5	8	GT1	Stefan Mücke / Darren Turner	Aston Martin DB9	01:53.082	16	0.305	70
6	11	GT1	Mike Hezemans / Nicky Catsburg	Corvette Z06	01:53.170	19	0.393	69
7	7	GT1	Alex Müller / Tomas Enge	Aston Martin DB9	01:53.308	18	0.531	70
8	20	GT1	Enrique Bernoldi / Ricardo Zonta	Nissan GT-R	01:53.373	23	0.596	69
9	23	GT1	Lucas Luhr / Michael Krumm	Nissan GT-R	01:53.585	28	0.808	71
10	5	GT1	Karl Wendlinger / Peter Kox	Lamborghini Murcielago 670 R-S	01:53.668	24	0.891	70
11	21	GT1	David Brabham / Jamie Campbell-Walter	Nissan GT-R	01:53.815	24	1.038	70
12	47	GT1	Michael Rossi / Jaime Camara	Corvette Z06	01:54.389	23	1.612	67
13	3	GT1	Clivio Piccione / Stef Dusseldorp	Aston Martin DB9	01:54.685	20	1.908	70
14	10	GT1	Martin Matzke / Milos Pavlovic	Ford GT Matech	01:54.921	19	2.144	69
15	6	GT1	Max Nilsson / Jiri Janak	Lamborghini Murcielago 670 R-S	01:55.199	28	2.422	68
16	9	GT1	Antoine Leclerc / Fabien Giroix	Ford GT Matech	01:55.564	28	2.787	68