Fred Makowiecki stormed to pole in the Top 15 Shootout session ahead of the 2016 Sepang 12 Hours in the #912 Manthey Racing 911 GT3 R, with an early tour of 2:02.634, good enough to finished just over a tenth clear of the other runners.
The Frenchman’s best time saw off the K-PAX Racing McLaren of newly-crowed Pirelli World Challenge Champion Alvaro Parente, who set a 2:02.634 to put the sole 650S GT3 in the race second on the grid. Parente, along with fellow McLaren factory drivers Shane Van Gisbergen and Come Ledogar have shown front-running pace so far after topping Free Practice 1 yesterday and Free Practice 3 earlier this morning, in what is the Californian-based team’s first endurance event.
Third on the grid for tomorrow’s race was taken by the second Manthey Racing Porsche in the race, driven by one of Porsche’s new full-time LMP1 drivers for 2017, Earl Bamber. The Kiwi’s best time was a 2:02.851 pushing the #11 Singha Motorsport Ferrari 488 GT3 of Carlo van Dam, the Pro-Am class pole winner, down to fourth.
The top five was bookended by the #88 JLOC Lamborghini Huracan GT3, which this weekend will be driven by Manabu Orido, Kabuki Hiramine and Adrian Zaugg this weekend. Orin set the Japanese-outfit’s time in the shootout, a 2:03.264.
Meanwhile, further down the running order, after running quickest in night practice yesterday, Rene Rast in the #16 Phoenix Racing Audi could only muster a lap of 2:04.066 during the shootout, which put the #16 Audi R8 LMS, which the German will share with Pierre Kaffer and fellow countryman Markus Winkelhock, a disappointing ninth. The sister #15 Phoenix Audi had a better run in the session however, Laurens Vanthoor putting his R8 sixth with a 2:03.436.
The GTC pole-sitter also managed to make it to the Top 15 Shootout. The B-Quick Racing Team Audi R8 LMS Cup car of Henk Kiks, Daniel Bilski and Peter Kox will start the race 13th after setting a time of 2:06.294, a second quicker than the other two runners in the class.
The 2016 12 Hours of Sepang is set to start at midday tomorrow and run until midnight at the Sepang International Circuit, local time in Malaysia.
