Felix Rosenqvist went fastest in a dry and sunny Thursday afternoon pre-qualifying session at Spa, putting the #88 AKKA-ASP Mercedes AMG-GT top of the screens, with a time of 2:19.546.
The quick Swede and his co-drivers Tristan Vautier and Renger van der Zande are being hotly tipped to get among the more established front-runners ahead of the weekend’s race, and Vautier was full of confidence when DSC spoke to him during the session.
“We have three fast drivers, good extra support from Mercedes and the car is quick, so there are no excuses,” he smiled. “The car is great, much nicer than the previous generation GT3s. We just worked on the balance a little bit this session, but overall it’s going well.”
Second-fastest was Maro Engel in the #00 Linkin Park-liveried Black Falcon Mercedes, going around in 2:19.614, ahead of another Mercedes, the #85 HTP machine of Clemens Schmid, which lapped in 2:19.883.
Fourth-fastest was free practice pace-setter Christopher Haase in the #26 Sainteloc Audi, ahead of Max Buhk in the #85 HTP Mercedes. Oliver Gavin meanwhile topped Pro-Am in the #666 Barwell Lamborghini, which wound up sixth-fastest overall.
Following on from this session, the top 20 fastest times set across Qualifying (from 8:00 to 9:15pm local time) and Night Qualifying (from 9:45 to 11:45pm local time) will determine what cars appear in Friday evening’s 20-car Super Pole shootout.
