McLaren is in a strong position to secure pole position for the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa after a faultless display during Thursday night’s Qualifying.
Three class poles have already been decided, while the Gold Cup battle will be settled via the Hyperpole session on Friday.
The Garage 59 car was fast in all three of its sessions (three-driver crews skipped Q1).
CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa rookie Joseph Loake was impressive, ending second to the #31 Team WRT BMW driven by Dries Vanthoor in Q2, while Marvin Kirchhöfer topped Q3 with a blistering 2m16.221s lap, as a result the car was parked for the final run of the session, the team and driver confident their work was done.
This gave Benjamin Goethe the opportunity to secure the top spot, a 2m16.315s lap was good enough for fourth in the session and a very comfortable P1. This session was led by another Garage 59 entry, the #188 machine driven by Jack Hawksworth managed a 2m16.214s lap, the fastest time of the entire Qualifying.
The #59 Garage 59 McLaren will run last in Superpole, preceded by the other 19 cars that secured their spot on Thursday evening. McLaren is the only brand with a single shot at Superpole but, on the evidence of their Qualifying, has the best chance of all.
BMW will be represented by five cars, three from Team WRT and two from ROWE Racing. Porsche has four from Schumacher CLRT, Dinamic GT, Rutronik Racing and Herberth Motorsport, while Mercedes-AMG has three shots at pole thanks to GetSpeed, Team Mann-Filter and Boutsen VDS. Aston Martin also has three entries, Comtoyou Racing, Verstappen.com Racing and Walkenhorst Motorsport) with two each from Ferrari (both AF Corse – Francorchamps Motors) and Lamborghini (VSR and Grasser Racing).
Gold Cup pole will be settled in Superpole with both the Verstappen.com Aston Martin and the Herberth Porsche going for top spot. The other three classes were settled in Qualifying. Century Motorsport topped the Silver Cup and very nearly broke into Superpole, placing 21st with its #42 BMW. Top spot in Bronze Cup went to the #66 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi, with the #29 AV Racing by Car Collection Motorsport Porsche doing the job in Pro-Am.
In a frenetic Qualifying involving three red flags during Q1 and another in Q3, tyre choice and track position were all important with many teams finding themselves under pressure to deliver quick laps with very little time.
In Q1 Tim Sandtler hit the barriers hard at Raidillon in the #611 Nordique Racing Mercedes-AMG. The car suffered significant damage but the driver walked away. The team took no further part in Qualifying and will focus on making the start of Saturday’s race.
Superpole takes place on Friday at 16:10 CEST and will see each crew nominate one driver to complete two flying laps of Spa-Francorchamps. The cars will run in reverse order to their finishing positions in tonight’s combined sessions, with the Garage 59 squad rolling off last in the battle for pole. By Melissa Warren
