After the 55-minute qualifying session, Laurens Vanthoor took pole for WRT in the dying moments of the Q3 shootout with a stellar lap of 1:23.835, just 0.022 ahead of Maximilian Götz who will start second in the qualifying race tomorrow.
Q1
The majority of the first 15-minute session was an erratic affair at the top, with Brazilian ex-GP2 driver Sergio Jimenez posting the overall quickest time in the #0 Team Brasil BMW – 1:24.575.
Initially Stefan Landmann in the #27 Grasser Lambo and the two ROAL Motorsport BMWs of Alex Zanardi and Stefano Colombo duked it out at the top. Landmann emerged at the top of the times after five minutes of running with a 1:25.647, but it wouldn’t last long for the Austrian.
After two quiet practice sessions for the HTP Mercedes, suddenly Max Buhk found pace in the #84 SLS and went fastest mere seconds after Jimenez’s first flyer. Jimenez managed to go quicker on the next lap though, putting up a 1:24.575 to take charge with just under five minutes to run. This left Buhk second and Colombo third, where they would stay.
That’s not to say that Buhk didn’t try. The German had one more lap in him to try and take the top spot off the Brazilian, but he couldn’t quite do it, posting a 1:24.582 with under two minutes to go, just seven thousandths back.
Aside from a spin by Arman Ebrahim at Clearways, the session was clean. However, the #88 Reiter Lambo of Tomas Enge and Stefan Rosina didn’t turn a wheel in the session due to driveshaft issues, and we also learnt in this session that sadly, the #89 Farnbacher Porsche had been withdrawn from the event after the accident in the first practice session.
Q2
The tables turned in the second session, as Audi teams finished 1-2-3 with Markus Winkelhock leading the way for Phoenix in the #6 R8. His time of 1:24.156, was four tenths faster than the best time set by Jimenez in the first session.
Winkelhock went to the top of the times early in the session, with a 1:24.728, but it wouldn’t stand up for any amount of time as Zanardi had another crack at the quickest time, going two tenths quicker with 10 minutes left.
Laurens Vanthoor, who was quick earlier in the day then managed to leapfrog the Italian, with a 1:24.307 with just over 9 minutes left to run. Audi would not be challenged for the top spot for the remaining minutes.
While all this was going on, Rene Rast in the #2 WRT Audi was beginning to go quicker, but was warned and then penalised for not respecting track limits. This resulted in his fastest lap for the first 10 minutes being deleted, pushing him down to 12th in the standings. Rast wasn’t fazed by the penalty however, and immediately went quicker than he had previously, putting his R8 top with a 1:24.189.
This, just moments after Max Götz followed in the steps of his teammate, going second in the #84 HTP SLS. He would end up fourth though when the chequered flag was shown, as Winkelhock put in his time good enough for pole and Vanthoor popped up to third with a 1:24.307, and Rast as previously mentioned fell down to second.
The #88 Reiter Lambo once again didn’t make an appearance in this session – it remains to be seen whether the team will take part in the two races tomorrow.
Q3
The 10 fastest cars from the first two sessions went out for the final shootout, and it would be Laurens Vanthoor who would take pole position for tomorrow’s qualifying race with a blistering lap of 1:23.865 as time expired.
Jeroen Bleekemolen in the #28 Grasser Lamborghini immediately threw down the gauntlet in the session, putting in what was at the time considered quick – a 1:24.282. But the times would tumble rapidly, as the 1:23 barrier was broken for the first time of the weekend.
Not much changed at the top until Jeroen improved his time further and posted a 1:23.984, but a hard-charging Mercedes of Max Götz would better the Dutchman’s time.
Götz went quickest, with a 1:23.894 with just under five minutes to go, and it looked like it would be good enough for pole all the way until the end, but Vanthoor pulled his pole lap out of the bag to shake up the order and make it two Audi poles in a row this year.
“My lap time was really good, and to be honest I already radioed my team on my in-lap to say ‘good job’,” admitted Götz afterwards. “But it was really tight in the end, I was pushing like hell and I did two good laps. I loved it though, it’s a really good, historic racetrack.”
Vanthoor’s pole lap was initially under investigation by the stewards for abusing track limits, but as we found out during the press conference, it would stand.
“My first lap was messy, I went over the grass which meant my tyres were dirty and I lost a lot of time there,” said Vanthoor. “On my last lap I just did all I could to set the best time, I took risks and was lucky that it was such a good lap.”
After the top three of Vanthoor, Götz and Bleekemolen it was Markus Winkelhock who ended up fourth for Phoenix after a 1:24.108, and Matheus Dall’agno Stumpf rounding out the top five with a 1:24.254 in the #30 Team Brasil BMW.
The polesitter in the Silver Cup was the #34 ROAL Motorsport BMW of David Fumanelli ad Stefano Colombo, who will start 10th overall.
Pro Am was headed by the #5 Phoenix Audi of Alessandro Latif and Marc Basseng – they will start 11th.
With the top 10 runners ending up within a second of each other ahead of the qualifying race tomorrow morning, everyone attending the races should be in for a treat.
Stephen Kilbey
