February 27, 2002
Daan Van Renswoude has scored the 1st Pole Position of the 2002 GPVWC season, at the Albert Park Circuit, Australia. He was closely followed by his Hernj-Roaldo team mate, Pedro Daniel Miguel setting the stage for what could be a fairly close race between the two BMW powered drivers.

Click here for full results and statistics.

Jason Smith set a very quick 1m28.5 to take 3rd position on the grid, and was one of only 3 drivers to choose the hard compound tyres. It is feasible that he would have set a faster time on the softer compound, which as we all know are faster over a few laps...but tend to lose grip faster than the hard compound....time will tell if this was the right decision.

Erdem Coban lines up 4th, for his MaMa Racing-Honda team. The Dutchman was just over 1 second slower than Smith, but considering his Honda engine has 70bhp less than the Ferrari of Smith's, he did a very good job indeed.

Pablo Arteaga put in a flyer to land him 5th spot. The Argentinian used his Bridgestone boots to perfection to qualify within 1.5 seconds of the works Ferrari engine.

Australia's Blair Disley lines up a creditable 6th in his Bridgestone shod, Asiatech powered Dizzo. The team owner/driver will clearly, if this performance is anything to go by, dominate his inexperienced team mate Chris Day, who qualified a lowly 11th.

MCR stars, Chris Jones & Andrew Turner, set 7th and 8th fastest times respectively, after overcoming problem after problem after problem! ..quite an achievement....

DPI Racing's Dan Lawrence set the 9th quickest time. The Briton, using the least powerful engine on the grid [@ only 700bhp] and some 120bhp less than BMW and Ferrari [w], shows promise for DPI, who were not optimistic of a grid position inside the top 15. Lawrence, is the 2nd of just 3 drivers to choose the hard compound tyre for qualifying, which he must now use for the race.

Mapes-VO quickly fielded in Peter Van Oostende moments before Qualifying ended, he set the 10th quickest time in a remarkable situation which saw him have no time to work on a setup at all.

MaMa Racing's test/reserve driver gets an early break into Formula 1 at only the 1st race of the season! He qualified a respectable 11th, as he fills the seat of Leon Verheggen who could not make the race.

Dan Regan, Mommarks new number 1, rounds out the top 12 in a car which is yet to be launched. Mommark are running the Renault engine, which only has 5bhp more than the current worst engine in F1.

Chris Day lines up 13th for Dizzo, Johan Ahlers is aiming to impress Mapes-VO management for a permanent drive with his 14th spot, and Paul Wallace rounds out the legal qualifiers with for DPI Racing with a lowly 1m36.5..some 10 seconds off Pole in 15th

Unfortunately, James Davidson [KRB] and James Fowler [Jonk GP], were disqualified from the qualifying session. Davidson because he ran a custom Melbourne track, instead of the standard track, and Fowler because he failed to send a 'saved game file' with his hotlap.

These drivers are still entitled to race, albeit from the back of the grid....22nd.

So, 17 starters for the season opener....a reasonable amount...

The non qualifiers are both CVRT's, both BA Racing-Cosworths, and William Ponissi in the 2nd Mommark.

These non-qualifiers CAN appeal to start the race [from 22nd] providing there is a valid excuse for not qualifying. Appeals MUST be addressed to gpvwc-admin@formula1sims.com