Honda best qualifying time at Kyalami

This is called rolling crescendo. Honda took provisional pole for the 9 Hours of Kyalami after three qualifying sessions thanks to Mario Farnbacher, Renger van der Zande and Bertrand Baguette.

During the first session, eyes were on the No. 8 Audi R3 LMS GT31 from Team WRT. Dries Vanthoor was unable to set a correct time until 1 minute from the end of the session.

Pendant ce temps-là, Martin Tomczyck effectuait le meilleur temps de la Qualif 1 dans la BMW M6 GT3 n°35 du Walkenhorst Motorsport, en 1’42 »775. « Nous n’avons pas roulé lors des trois premières séances d’essais, les gards ont fait un travail incroyable pour tout remettrre en ordre » a-t-il commenté. Il se retrouvait 29 millièmes devant Matt Campbell dans la Porsche du GPX Racing et 96 millièmes devant Bertrand Baguette dans la Honda NSX GT3.

All the cars were within 758 thousandths but the Bentleys seemed a little behind at six tenths as did the Dinamic Motorsport Porsche driven by Kevin Estre.

The Bentleys ran much better in Q2 as Jules Gounon set the best time of the session in the #7. Nicky Catsburg and the #34 BMW seemed to be holding their own on the cumulative times, until Renger Van der Zende brought everyone into agreement in the last minute of the session in the Honda NSX and took the lead by 117 thousandths. in front of the BMW. A very significant gap since 463 thousandths separated the ten professional cars.

But Honda had not finished his recital. In Q3, Mario Farnbacher killed the competition with an exceptional 1'41"979, the only time of the weekend under 1'42 and almost three tenths better than his closest competitor of the session, Sheldon Van der Linde. The South African still allowed the #34 BMW to finish second. Third place went to the No. 7 Bentley of Jules Gounon, Jordan Pepper and Maxime Soulet.

The No. 911 Porsche 3 GT12 R of Mathieu Jaminet, Patrick Pilet and Matt Campbell finished fourth ahead of the No. 8 Car Collection Audi R3 LMS GT44 driven by Mattia Drudi, Patric Niederhauser and Christopher Haase.

On the other hand, championship leaders Laurens Vanthoor and Earl Bamber could not do better than 10th and last of the professional cars with the No. 54 Dinamic Motorsport Porsche.

The five manufacturers entered in this final of the Intercontinental GT Challenge are ranked in the first five places in qualifying, which promises for theth shootout at 15 p.m. which will see the best six participate.