A rather strange qualifying session for the second round of the
FIA GT Championship saw Jetalliance's Alex Müller set pole position just as the chequered flag fell but, until then, it looked as if Emmanuel Collard would become the first GT2 driver to take overall pole since Antonio Garcia in 2001.
The GT2 and G2 drivers went out in dry conditions for the first time all weekend, with Collard setting the best time in the #61 Prospeed Competition Porsche 997 GT3 RSR, ahead of Christian Montanari's #51 AF Corse
Ferrari 430 GT2 and Tim Mullen's #55 CR Scuderia example.
However, in the five-minute gap between the sessions, it began to rain in the second sector, meaning that the GT1 drivers would be faced with very slippery conditions on part of the track, while the other two sectors remained dry.
There were some casualties on the first lap, including the #4 PK Saleen S7R and the #6 Phoenix Corvette C6R and, for much of the 15-minute session, the GT1 cars remained behind the GT2 cars in the classification. Just as it really looked as though the grid could line-up backwards, times started improving.
A battle then developed between Christophe Bouchut, in the #3 SRT Corvette, Müller's #36 Jetalliance Aston Martin DBR9, Allan Simonsen's #10 Gigawave Aston Martin and Marcel Fässler in the #5 Phoenix Corvette, all of which gradually climbed up the grid.
Bouchut was the first to set a time faster than Collard's GT2 pole, with a lap of 1min 49.555secs, while Fässler moved up to second and demoted Collard to third.
However, as the chequered flag fell, Müller put in a lap of 1min 49.258secs in the #36 Jetalliance Aston to take his first FIA GT pole position in only his second outing for the team. Jetalliance duly claimed its second consecutive pole at Monza, but last year's top man was less lucky, with Karl Wendlinger suffering a cut tyre and starting from 28th position on the grid.
Bouchut took second for the second race in a row, while Alexandre Negrao put in a last-minute time of 1min 49.737secs to take the third spot on the grid in the #2 Vitaphone Maserati.
