FIA GT Championship

Total 24 Hours of Spa: Pre-Qualifying Report

© Planetlemans - Marcel ten Caat

During Pre-Qualifying the Corvette teams restored the order at Spa-Francorchamps. After being beaten by the Larbre Saleen in free practice the Corvettes were first and second in the second session of the day. The sun was still out, but temperatures had gone down a bit in this session.

Unlike the free practice session there was no interruption by red flags this time and all 44 cars that are here this weekend took part in the session. After an hour and a half it was the Corvette of Mike Hezemans, Marcel Fässler, Jean-Denis Deletraz and Fabrizio Gollin who was on top of the timing sheets. The fastest time set by the #6 Phoenix Racing Corvette C6.R was a 2:16.759, just two tenths quicker than the fastest time in the free practice session.

Second quickest was the SRT Corvette C6.R, fully ready again after its shunt in the first session. The Corvette driven by Christophe Bouchut, Xavier Maassen, Maxime Soulet and Christophe Pillon was exactly half a second behind the Phoenix Corvette. Third quickest was the Vitaphone Racing Maserati MC12 of Andrea Bertolini, Michael Bartels, Stephane Sarrazin and Eric van de Poele in a 2:17.646.

Defending Spa 24 champions BMS Scuderia Italia were quickest in GT2. The Ferrari 430 GT2 of Malucelli, Ruberti, Camathias and Rigon lapped the 7.004 km long circuit in 2:23.552. Last year’s runner-up IMSA Performance Matmut (Raymond Narac/Richard Lietz/Patrick Long) also finished the pre-qualifying session in second place only 0.021s behind the Italian squad. Third fastest was the #50 AF Corse Ferrari 430 GT2 of Gianmaria Bruni, Toni Vilander, Mika Salo and Jaime Melo.

In G3 the Mühlner Motorsport Porsches took a 1-2 this session with the #123 with Porsche works driver Marc Basseng behind the wheel of the fastest car. The Belgian Racing Gillet Vertigo was quickest in G2 while the number 181 JMB Racing Ferrari was the quickest of the three JMB entries in the Coupe du Roi class.

Next up: the first two qualifying sessions…from 20:30 till 21:30 and from 22:00 till 23:30.