Dumas-Jaminet-Müller and ROWE Racing on pole in Barcelona

At the best average of the three sessions of the final qualifying of the 2019 Blancpain GT Series season Endurance Cup, le dernier mot est revenu à la Porsche 911 GT3 R n°98 – ROWE Racing de Romain Dumas – Mathieu Jaminet – Sven Müller, sur le tracé catalan de Barcelone.

This is the first pole for a Porsche since Silverstone in 2014 and confirmation of the good times set yesterday in free practice by the Weissach cars on the Montmelo track.

Q1

As usual, Raffaele Marciello (Mercedes-AMG GT3 n°88 – AKKA-ASP) quickly placed itself at the forefront in 1’44″598, more than half a second ahead of Marvin Kirchhöfer (Aston Martin Vantage GT3 n°76 – R-Motorsport).

The session was then neutralized under a red flag 8′ from the end of Q1, caused by the double exit from the track of the Ferrari 488 GT3 n°93 – Tempesta Racing of Chris Buncombe and the Mercedes-AMG GT3 n°74 – Ram Racing of Remon Vos.

Marciello's closest pursuer ultimately turned out to be Dries Vanthoor, who replaced the No. 8 Audi R3 LMS GT2 Evo – Team WRT at 0, the Belgian getting the better of Kirchhöfer. Another excellent performance from Jim Pla (Mercedes-AMG GT383 n°3 – AKKA-ASP), best time in Pro-Am and 87th fastest time of the session in 4'1″45.

The top 5 is completed by Albert Costa (Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo n°563 – FFF Racing), who supports Andrea Caldarelli and Marco Mapelli, still in the running for the Endurance Cup and Blancpain GT Series title.

Miguel Molina (Ferrari 488 GT3 n°72 – SMP Racing), leader of the Endurance Cup championship with Davide Rigon and Mikhail Aleshin, only set the 12th fastest time (while being under investigation for an incident with the Mercedes n°74), when their rivals Maro Engel, Yelmer Buurman and Luca Stolz (Mercedes-AMG GT3 n°4 – Black Falcon) are provisionally classified 6th with the lap achieved by Engel.

Q2

The second part of qualifying saw Andrea Caldarelli (Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo n°563 – FFF Racing) set the best time in 1'44″942, 17 thousandths ahead of Mathieu Jaminet (Porsche 911 GT3 R n°98 – ROWE Racing ) and 0″183 ahead of Giacomo Altoe (Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo n°519 – FFF Racing).

In the cumulative standings before the final session, Team WRT and the No. 8 Audi R3 LMS GT2 Evo take the lead, six thousandths ahead of the No. 563 Lamborghini – FFF Racing, 12 thousandths ahead of the No. 3 Mercedes-AMG GT88 – AKKA-ASP and 36 thousandths ahead of the No. 911 Porsche 3 GT98 R – ROWE Racing. The #72 Ferrari is currently only 14th before Q3.

Q3

If Luca Stolz (Mercedes-AMG GT3 n°4 – Black Falcon) sets the best time of the session in 1'44″714, it is the Porsche 911 GT3 R n°98 – ROWE Racing of Mathieu Jaminet, Romain Dumas and Sven Müller who finally took pole in the combined standings, thanks to Jaminet's second time in Q3, 0″166 behind Stolz.

The Porsche n°98 – ROWE Racing ultimately leads the Mercedes-AMG GT3 n°4 – Black Falcon of Stolz – Engel – Buurman by 54 thousandths, and is ahead of the Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo n°563 – FFF Racing of Andrea Caldarelli – Marco Mapelli – Albert Costa, rival for the overall Blancpain GT Series title, clocked at 55 thousandths.

The top 5 is completed by the No. 8 Audi R3 LMS GT2 Evo – Team WRT of Dries Vanthoor – Ezequiel Perez Companc – Alex Riberas and the Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo n°519 – FFF Racing of Giacomo Altoe – Giovanni Venturini – Phil Keen.

The #488 Ferrari 3 GT72 – SMP Racing of Davide Rigon – Mikhail Aleshin – Miguel Molina will start from 13th place.

In the Silver Cup, AKKA-ASP took pole with the No. 3 Mercedes-AMG GT90 of Felipe Fraga – Timur Boguslavskiy – Nico Bastian. Ranked 29th, the #3 Lamborghini Huracan GT77 Evo – Barwell Motorsport of Miguel Ramos – Leo Machitski – Adrian Amstutz dominates in the Am Cup while AKKA-ASP also takes pole in Pro-Am with the #3 Mercedes-AMG GT87 by Jim Pla – Jean-Luc Beaublique and Mauro Ricci.