Spa 24 Hours: Laurens Vanthoor's WRT Audi secures pole
WRT Audi driver Laurens Vanthoor claimed pole position for this weekend's Spa 24 Hours
Vanthoor, who drives the lead WRT Audi R8 LMS ultra with Rene Rast and Markus Winkelhock, came out on top in the 20-minute Super Pole with a best time of 2m18.710s set on the second of his two flying laps.
That put him just four hundredths of a second ahead of Alessandro Pier Guidi in his Pro-Am class Ferrari 458 Italia run by AF Corse.
Vanthoor said: "I pushed like hell and when my engineer said 'P1', I replied, 'Really?'.
"Pole position is not the most important thing, but I'm a Belgian driver racing for a Belgian team, so I couldn't have hoped for a better start."
The Audi R8 took the pole after receiving a series of breaks under the Balance of Performance rules ahead of the race: its base weight has been reduced by 10kg, the diameter of its engine air-restrictor increased and its minimum rideheight lowered.
Third place went to an HTP Motorsport Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG driven by Stef Dusseldorp.
The Dutchman ended up just under three tenths behind Pier Guidi in the car he shares with Sergei Afanasiev and Xavier Maassen.
Fourth and fifth places went to the Sainteloc and WRT Audis driven by Edward Sandstrom and Christopher Mies respectively with times separated by just half a tenth.
Steven Kane qualified the only M-Sport Bentley Continental GT3 to make it into Super Pole in sixth place on a 2m19.093.
The top McLaren, BMW and Aston Martin entries filled eighth, ninth and 10th positions.
Kevin Estre was quickest in the #99 ART McLaren MP4-12C, Nicky Catsburg was the best BMW Z4 driver in a Pro-Am entry from the TDS Racing team and Stefan Mucke took Aston Martin honours for Beechdean.
The Spa 24 Hours, round four of the Blancpain Endurance Series, starts at 4:30pm local time on Saturday.
Leading positions: Pos Cl Drivers Team/Car Time Gap 1. PRO Vanthoor/Winkelhock/Rast WRT Audi 2m18.710s 2. PAM Danyilw/Knap/Sonvico/Guidi AF Corse Ferrari 2m18.756s +0.046s 3. PRO Dusseldrop/Afanasiev/Massen HTP Mercedes 2m18.934s +0.224s 4. PRO Ortelli/Sandstrom/Guilvert Sainteloc Audi 2m18.989s +0.279s 5. PRO Miles/Stippler/Nash WRT Audi 2m19.032s +0.322s 6. PRO Smith/Meyrick/Kane MS Bentley 2m19.093s +0.383s 7. PRO Schneider/Primat/Verdonck HTP Mercedes 2m19.166s +0.456s 8. PRO Korjus/Soucek/Estre ART McLaren 2m19.316s +0.606s 9. PAM Klingman/Hassid/Catsburg/Thiriet TDS BMW 2m19.334s +0.624s 10. PAM Howard/Adam/Mucke/Lloyd Beechdean Aston Martin 2m19.491s +0.781s
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