24 Hours of Spa – McLaren and Garage 59 shine in qualifying

The 77e edition of the 24 Hours of Spa promises to be eventful. If we are to believe the qualifying sessions held at nightfall this Thursday, the race could resemble a long succession of neutralizations, sometimes behind the safety car, sometimes under Full Course Yellow.

Admittedly, the weather forecast predicts a lull. In principle, the rain that seriously complicated this first day should be gone by Sunday—and we won't complain about that. But with 75 cars entered, all with very similar performances, we've undoubtedly reached a critical limit.

In terms of performance, we can be pleased with the diversity of this provisional grid. By establishing an average of the best times of each driver, the hierarchy places a McLaren on provisional pole, that of Benjamin Goethe, Marvin Kirchhöfer and Joseph Loake, followed by a BMW, a Porsche, then a Mercedes the Ferrari ranked 7th and 8th, just behind a Lamborghini. TheAston Martin victorious in 2024 occupies the 9th position. Another Aston, entered by the team of Max Verstappen, largely dominates the Gold Cup with an excellent 14th time overall.

As for the famous BMW M4 n°46, it climbed to 20th place, thanks to the excellent work of René Rast and Kevin Magnussen - without forgetting Valentino Rossi, author of an impeccable session in the middle of the night. It is also this car that will open the Superpole this Friday, while the McLaren n°59 will start in last position.

As mentioned, qualifying was marked by numerous off-track accidents. The first was caused by Nicolas Baert's No. 21 Aston Martin, which caused the first red flag of the evening. A few minutes later, the No. 52 Ferrari was sent to the gravel trap, the victim of a slight error by Louis Machiels. Then it was Tim Sandler's turn (Mercedes-AMG No. 611) to end his race in the tire wall at the top of the Raidillon.

Q2 was the only session spared from interruptions, before Q3 was again neutralized by the crash of the Comtoyou team's No. 11 Aston Martin, which was clearly in great demand. Added to this was the No. 81 Mercedes-AMG, which had already started the series of incidents during prequalifying. The toll was heavy: several cars damaged and overtime expected for the mechanics, on the eve of the big Spa event.

Join us this Friday to find out if all 75 cars entered will be at the start of the 24 2025 Hours, Saturday at 16:30 p.m. And then it's time for sport between 16:10 p.m. and 16:40 p.m. for Superpole, which will determine the starting grid for the twenty fastest GT3 cars. A moment of rare intensity.