24 Hours of Spa – BMW and Walkenhorst Motorsport on provisional pole

BMW took provisional pole for the 24 Spa 2018 Hours with the No. 6 Walkenhorst Motorsport M3 GT34 of Philipp Eng – Christian Krognes – Tom Blomqvist.

Q1, reserved for the fourth drivers of crews with four drivers, saw the domination of the Mercedes-AMG GT3 n°89 – AKKA ASP of Nico Jamin, who quickly set his best time in 2'21″118, before the Honda NSX GT3 n°30 – Castrol Honda Racing of Riccardo Patrese caused a red flag after a spin at the Campus bend.

Looks like he's up and running again, with a little help.#Spa24h #BlancpainGT pic.twitter.com/I2zKJMLj4c

— Total 24Hours of Spa (@24HoursofSpa) July 26, 2018

No one will be able to improve the Frenchman's reference before Q2. Moment chosen by Dries Vanthoor (Audi R8 LMS GT3 n°1 – Audi Sport Team WRT) to lower the benchmark to 2'18″763, 225 thousandths ahead of the BMW M6 GT3 n°34 – Walkenhorst Motorsport of Tom Blomqvist.

This is followed by the No. 8 Audi R3 LMS GT29 – Montaplast by Land of Kelvin van der Linde, the No. 8 Audi R3 LMS GT2 – Audi Sport Team WRT of René Rast and the McLaren 650S GT3 n°58 – Garage 59, with Côme Ledogar’s time.

BMW goes on the attack

BMW and Walkenhorst Motorsport then increased the pace in Q3, with Christian Krognes in the No. 6 M3 GT34, surprisingly best time in this third qualifying part in 2'19"012, to bring the cumulative average to 2'19"000.

Behind the Munich car, the No. 8 Audi R3 LMS GT25 – Saintéloc Racing of Frédéric Vervisch follows four tenths behind in the cumulative standings, and precedes the No. 8 Audi R3 LMS GT29 – Montaplast by Land, theAston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 n°76 – R-Motorsport of Jake Dennis and the Audi R8 LMS GT3 n°2 – Audi Sport Team WRT of Nico Müller.

But a red flag 4'52" from the end of Q3 came after the #12 Aston Martin V3 Vantage GT76 of Jake Dennis stopped at the trackside, immobilized at the top of Raidillon, apparently following a power problem. oil pressure after contact, liquid being spilled on the trajectory of the legendary Ardennes route. It will take a few minutes to clean the track.

The #76 Aston will now start at the rear of the field as they won't set a Q4 lap.

A tough break for the R-Motorsport squad as the car was fourth on average times when it broke down. https://t.co/UWN9oHEuFr#Spa24h #BlancpainGT pic.twitter.com/AxHxGLpE6a

— Total 24Hours of Spa (@24HoursofSpa) July 26, 2018

A real rush on the track to set a final time occurred at the restart, with several cars having no time, notably the No. 8 Audi R3 LMS GT1 – Audi Sport Team WRT. But Alex Riberas will manage to set a time, but no one will dislodge BMW and Walkenhorst from provisional first place.

BMW maintains the advantage

The last part of this qualification finally sees the BMW M6 GT3 n°34 – Walkenhorst de Eng – Blomqvist – Krognes finish the session in the lead with the best cumulative performance in 2'19″155 and take the top 20 qualified for the Super Pole, 0″314 ahead of the No. 8 Audi R3 LMS GT25 – Audi Sport Saintéloc Racing from Vervisch – Winkelhock – Haase.

Suivent les deux Audi R8 LMS GT3 n°2 et n°1 – Audi Sport Team WRT de Rast – Müller – Frijns et D. Vanthoor – Mies – Riberas. L’Audi R8 LMS GT3 n°29 – Montaplast by Land Motorsport des frères van der Linde et Jeffrey Schmidt suit en cinquième position devant la première Bentley Continental GT3 n°8 – Team M-Sport d’Abril – Soucek – Soulet.

La première Mercedes-AMG GT3 n°4 – Black Falcon de Buurman – Engel – Stolz se hisse au 7e rang et précède la première Porsche 911 GT3 R n°117 – Team75 Bernhard de L. Vanthoor – Bernhard – Bamber.

La Ferrari 488 GT3 n°72 – SMP Racing from Molina – Aleshin – Rigon finished 9th ahead of the Lamborghini Huracan GT3 n°63 – GRT from Bortolotti – Engelhart – Caldarelli. Also qualified for the Super Pole:

Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 n°62 – R-Motorsport (Baumann – Kirchhöfer – Martin)
Mercedes-AMG GT3 n°88 AKKA ASP (Vautier – Marciello – Juncadella)
Porsche 911 GT3 R n°911 – Manthey Racing (Dumas – Makowiecki – Werner)
Mercedes-AMG GT3 n°84 – Team Mann Filter (van der Zande – Mortara – Paffett)
Lexus RC F GT3 n°14 – Emil Frey Racing (Seefried – Klien – Costa)
Audi R8 LMS GT3 n°66 – Attempto Racing (P. Schothorst – S. Schothorst – Green)
Audi R8 LMS GT3 n°17 ​​– Team WRT (Fässler – Leonard – Serra)
McLaren 650S GT3 n°58 – Garage 59 (Pla – Ledogar – Barnicoat)
Lamborghini Huracan GT3 n°82 – GRT (Perera – Keen – Ineichen)
BMW M6 GT3 n°99 – ROWE Racing (Sims – Klingmann – Catsburg)

In the Silver Cup, the best time went to the No. 3 Jaguar G54 – Emil Frey Racing, while the Pro-Am was dominated by the No. 3 Mercedes-AMG GT49 – Ram Racing. The #650 McLaren 3S GT188 – Garage 59 set the benchmark time in the Am Cup.

The Super Pole will begin tomorrow at 18:30 p.m., and can be followed live streaming on our website.

Qualification ranking