US-flagged Hypercar team Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus has stormed to its maiden FIA WEC pole position this evening at Spa-Francorchamps ahead of tomorrow’s six-hour race. Frenchman Olivier Pla was the star in the team’s 007 LMH, reeling off a 2:02.771 in the #708 to go 0.228 clear of the Alpine which will start alongside it on the front row.
While Jim Glickenhaus himself isn’t present at the event this weekend due to his N24 Qualifiers Weekend commitments, he will be still be overwhelmingly proud of this huge milestone for his team.
“I’m really happy, it’s a great achievement for Glickenhaus, Olivier deserves it, the team deserves it, it’s going to be a long day ahead tomorrow, we have a lot to improve, but this is a great day for the team,” Pipo Derani, a teammate of Pla, said.
Toyota meanwhile, had a quiet Qualifying and will hope for a stronger performance tomorrow. Its pair of GR010 HYBRIDs settled for third and fourth on the grid, both cars heading to the pits with 90 seconds to go, throwing in the towel early. The #7 Toyota will start third after a 2:03.087 from Kobayashi, while the #8 Toyota will line up fourth following Brendon Hartley’s time in the car.
In LMP2, Alessio Rovera took pole jumped from 12th on the timing screens to pole right at the end of the session, with a 2:04.246 in the Pro/Am class #83 AF Corse ORECA. His time was less than a tenth up on Robin Frijns who sat atop the class before the final flurry of times were posted by LMP2 teams in the dying seconds of the Hypercar/LMP2 session.
Completing the top five were the #22 United Autosports, #9 Prema and #41 Realteam by WRT ORECAs.
“It was a really intense session, with my first set of tyres I made a mistake which compromised my lap, so I took new tyres and made the most of it. The team did an amazing job with this car,” Rovera explained after getting out the LMP2 pole-sitting 07 Gibson.
Gianmaria Bruni stole the show in GTE Pro, the Italian snatching class pole at the death from his teammate Michael Christensen in the sister Porsche. The Italian’s best time was a 2:14.301, almost two tenths up on the rest of the field in the #91 911 RSR 19.
It was perfect, 1 lap is enough in qualifying and he made it exciting doing it on his last lap. It’s the best starting position for tomorrow, we need a clean six hours.” Bruni’s co-driver in the #91, Richard Lietz, said after the session.
Before Bruni’s final flyer, Michael Christensen looked set to take pole, the Dane missing out despite improving his best time late in the session.
Corvette Racing’s C8.R will start third in Pro tomorrow after a strong performance from Nick Tandy to get within three-tenths of the pole time. AF Corse meanwhile, head into Saturday with its drivers scratching their heads after ending up 8 tenths and 1.1 seconds respectively off the pace. The Italian Ferrari outfit’s fortunes, at least to this point, don’t appear to have changed after an underwhelming weekend back in March at Sebring.
The session was just as thrilling in the Am division, as Texan Ben Keating, like Bruni, took pole on his final flying lap in the #33 TF Sport Aston Martin. Keating’s best tour of the new-look Spa was a 2:17.408, over a second quicker than the #98 Northwest AMR Vantage of Paul Dalla Lana which will start second. Brendan Iribe took third in the #56 Team Project 1 Porsche, and Satoshi Hoshino made it three Aston Martins in the top four for D’Startion with his best time.
Tomorrow’s FIA WEC 6 Hours of Spa is set to get underway at 13:00 local time.
