Blancpain GT Series – Spa 24 Hours – practice and pre qualifying

  • 2015 Blancpain GT Series, car No. 5 passing pit stop

The massive endurance event which will be held on famous Spa circuit is underway. After the Bronze test on Tuesday and the drivers’ performance on the streets of the city, Thursday was very busy with three on track outings in practice, pre-qualifying and night-qualifying session. Since the event will be a 24-hour-long one, an interesting addition to regular timetable is a night qualifying session to introduce drivers to Spa in total dark.

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The two Ferraris 458 Italia GT3 were the fastest on the free practice in front of BMW Z4 GT3 and Mercedes SLS AMG GT3. However, in the pre qualifying session after, the Ferrari was again the fastest with time of 2’18.986 which is very good since it is only two-tenths off last year’s pole time. This means that we will certainly see better times as the event continues.

The second was Audi R8 LMS Ultra by home team Belgian Audi Club Team WRT which are favorites for this race. Not only because they are Belgians but also because they have Laurens Vanthoor, the leader in the championship standings. The third was BMW Z4 Gt3 with Alex Zanardi behind the wheel.

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However, when night came, the standings were quite different in night qualifying session. The fastest time was achieved by Audi R8 LMS Ultra but from Audi Sport Team WRT. The lap time was very fast at 2:18.608 which was better than Ferrari’s time this afternoon.

The second place was again occupied by Audi but from Phoenix Racing. Interestingly, on the third and fourth place there were two McLarens 650S from Von Ryan Racing. We have already seen that 650S is a very fast car so its high places shouldn’t be a surprise. Stay tuned for more coverage of this event.

photo:blancpain-gt-series.com

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