Templeman qualifies top Brit pack in Porsche Supercup

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Mon 19th July 2004 Jason Templeman was the leading British driver in qualifying today at Silverstone (Saturday 10 July) ahead of Sunday's round of the Porsche Michelin Supercup. The Team VLR driver will start from 15th place on the 23-car grid, one place ahead of Barry Horne in the VIP entry.

Having shown top 10 potential during Friday's practice session, both Templeman and Horne were disappointed to slip down the order during the 45-minute qualifying session. Meanwhile, Chris Cooper and Martin Rich from Team Parker Racing will start 18th and 19th and Marcus Thomas (Team VLR) will start 23rd.

Templeman, who lapped in 1m56.226s, was fractionally quicker than Horne. "I thought it was a good time, but it's very tough out there," admitted Jason. "But anything can happen in the race," he added.

Horne was frustrated when what would have been his best lap was spoilt by traffic. "I only got two good laps on the new tyres and I never really got a good crack at it," he explained. "On my first run I was a second quicker through the first sector and if I hadn't caught the traffic I'd have been at least a second quicker on the lap." That second would have put him fifth on the grid…

Cooper, too, felt that he had not been as quick as he should have been. "The track got hotter through the session and I was still learning the circuit on my first set of tyres. I'm losing a chunk of time in the middle sector with big oversteer at Club," he explained.

Despite a couple of spins, Rich was two-tenths of a second slower than his team mate and was pleased to have gone two seconds quicker than on Friday. "I benefited from following other cars and I think I'll be able to chase the pack in the race," he said.

Thomas, meanwhile, spent the qualifying session making up for the fact that a brake problem spoilt his running on Friday. "Today was really my test session," he said. "I'm still getting used to the car round here," he said after an early spin on the exit of Copse took him to within a few inches of the wall. "I just closed my eyes," he said of the narrow escape!

The five British drivers will now prepare for the 12-lap race, which will start at 11.10am on Sunday morning as the final support race ahead of the British Grand Prix. They will race in front of an expected crowd of 100,000 fans!