Karl Wendlinger secured pole position for the opening race of the new FIA GT Championship season at Silverstone, ahead of his debut for the K plus K Motorsport team.

At the wheel of the Saleen S7R, the Austrian posted a quickest time of 1min 42.216secs, which put him almost a second clear of the Vitaphone Maserati MC12 of Andrea Bertolini. The sister Maserati, qualified by Wendlinger's former Jetalliance team-mate Alex Muller, slotted into third place but was over a second away from the pace-setter.

Mike Hezemans was the quickest of the Corvette runners in fourth place for PK Carsport, while Guillaume Moreau was fifth for Luc Alphand Aventures. Former open-wheel racer Mario Dominguez was sixth as he prepares for his debut in the series, but such was the speed of the poleman that the Mexican was some two seconds away from the quickest time.

Amongst the 2010-spec GT1 cars on show, Bas Leinders was quickest for the Marc VDS Racing team, putting his Ford GT in tenth place on the grid ahead of the Nissan of Michael Krumm and the Matech Ford of Thomas Mutsch.

In GT2, pole went to Gianmaria Bruni's AF Corse-run Ferrari 430, with Frederic Makowiecki second quickest for Hexis Racing on its first race weekend with Aston Martin Vantage GT2. Martin Ragginger ensured three marques in the top three in class as he set the third quickest time in the Brixia Racing Porsche 997.