Sharp starts World GT opener from pole

Aberdeen’s Ryan Sharp, bidding to win the FIA World GT Championship with Austrian team-mate and former F1 racer Karl Wendlinger, will start tomorrow’s opening round at Silverstone from pole position. 

And the 30-year-old, who won the corresponding race 12 months, is confident the pair’s decision to switch from last year’s Aston Martin to the ultra-sleek Saleen S7 will finally bring them the title.

“We won more races last year than anyone else, yet we failed to take the championship,” Sharp said today after the pair topped the timesheets with a blistering lap of 1min 42.216secs, 0.934s ahead of the Maserati of their nearest rivals.

“This year we’re confident we will have the reliability to be competitive in every race. What cost us last year were a couple of mechanical reliability issues. We don’t believe that will be an issue this year.

“It would be fantastic to win at Silverstone again. Winning last year’s was a huge moment for me and I’d love to repeat it. There’s no better feeling than winning in front of your home crowd and that’s exactly what we want to do tomorrow.”

Sharp’s biggest threat will again come from the second-placed Maserati of double champs  Michael Bartels from Germany and Italian Andrea Bertolini.

In the GT2 class, there was disappointment for Fifer Andrew Kirkaldy who saw any hope he harboured of a fourth successive pole position in his CR Scuderia Ferrari F430GT wrecked by tyre problems.

“We seem to losing grip quiet early on our qualifying tyres,” the former British champion from St Andrews explained after clocking a best of 1:50.538s, sixth-fastest and two places behind his team-mate Tim Mullen’s 1:50.585s.

“We know our race tyres are better, so we’re confident we can battle our way to the front and grab at least a podium finish. A lot can happen in a two-hour race.”

Ominously for Kirkcaldy, who starts 17th overall and is partnered by Englishman Rob Bell, defending GT2 champions Gianmaria Bruni and Toni Vilander start from pole position in their AF Corse Ferrari after a 1:50.230s lap.

JM 

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