Top six on the grid for Marc VDS at Baku

Baku, Azerbaijan - BMW Sports Trophy Team Marc VDS will start the Baku World Challenge qualifying race from sixth position after a disrupted first day of running. Maxime Martin set a time of 1:43.908 in the BMW Z4 GT3 he'll share with Nick Catsburg.

Maxime Martin

Photo by: Trevor Horn

Track time was heavily compressed after some track problems in the morning. With concerns for the safety of the circuit, the track was altered before the first session took place. With only two practice sessions to learn a brand new track, time was against the team, and shortened gaps between the sessions meant set up changes were at a premium.

Despite this, the two drivers avoided the troubles several others encountered and improved their times throughout the day. Superpole was cancelled, leaving the qualifying times to be set from a combination of the two normal qualifying sessions. Fourth in Q2, Martin's time was good enough for sixth on the grid.

Tomorrow's qualifying race sets the grid for the main race, which will decide the winner of the 2013 Baku World challenge.

Sebastien Metz, Technical Director: "This was always going to be one of our biggest challenges of the year on the engineering side. I'm proud with the way the team has reacted to it. It's a track we've not seen before and it's completely different from any other track we race at - it's difficult, but it's exciting for us. The compressed schedule hasn't given us much time to adjust between sessions either, so I'm pretty pleased to see a good grid position."

Maxime Martin, BMW Z4 GT3 #4: "It's going to be a difficult race, but with track time limited it was a pretty good lap. This track is crazy. It's very narrow, very bumpy - it's a real challenge, especially with the front engine on this circuit. The situation isn't helped with so many red flags, and the race is clearly going to be extremely hard. Passing cars is nearly impossible here."

Marc VDS