Jordan Pepper, Franck Perera and Marco Mapelli put Lamborghini on top in tonight’s Qualifying for the 2024 Spa 24 Hours, with the #163 GRT Grasser Racing Team Huracan sitting on top of the time sheets.
Jordan Pepper set the fastest time of qualifying, with a 2:14.903 to eclipse Vincent Abril’s best lap in the #71 AF Corse Ferrari, who was the only other driver to drop into the 2:14’s.
Abril, with teammates Neubauer and Vidales, was in fourth, behind the #51 AF Corse Ferrari of Rovera, Rigon, and Pier Guidi in second, and the #48 Winward Racing Mercedes of Engel, Morad and Auer.
The goal for qualifying for those up top was to score a top 20 average lap time and to secure a spot in tomorrow’s Superpole session. Just missing the cut, with a 3-driver average lap time of 2:16.183, was the #46 WRT BMW. It missed the cut by only six-hundredths of a second, dropping behind the AlManar Racing by GetSpeed #777 Mercedes.
Other Pro cars missing the cut included the other WRT BMW, in 23rd, the #99 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi in 24th, the #96 Rutronik and #911 PureRxing Porsches, in 27th and 30th overall, as well as the #992 HubAuto Porsche in 44th. The #130 GruppeM Mercedes qualified in 52nd, after suffering splitter and floor damage.
The #159 Garage 59 McLaren also failed to make it into Superpole, after Tom Gamble brought out a red flag in the final qualifying after getting stranded at Les Combes. Gamble got the car restarted just as the red flag came out, but only made it as far as the entry to Piff-Paff before going behind the barriers. They qualified in 22nd.
Eight of the nine GT3 models made it into the top 20, with the only marque to miss out was the #64 Proton Competition Ford, qualifying in 31st.
The top Gold-class car was the #25 Sainteloc Racing Audi, which made the top 20 in 11th after a great lap from Ugo De Wilde, while the #77 Haupt Racing Team Mercedes, the #88 Tresor Attempto Audi and #777 AlManar Racing by GetSpeed Mercedes also made the cut from the gold class.
In Bronze, the #188 Garage 59 McLaren made the top 20, qualifying 12th, while Silver Cup Pole went to Winward Racing’s #57 in 29th. Pro-Am went to the #16 Uni Racing team, qualifying 53rd.
In addition to Gamble’s issue in Qualifying 4, there was an interruption in Qualifying 2 to recover the #61 Earl Bamber Motorsport Porsche of Li Kerong, who went into the gravel at Piff-Paff. Once on track, that car was able to continue.
The track conditions are much faster than last year, with the outright lap time three and a half seconds faster than the fastest lap in Qualifying last year. In fact, the best time from Q1, set by Arthur Rougier in the #111 CSA Racing Audi, was over 2 seconds faster than the best lap from Superpole 12 months ago.
COMBINED QUALIFYING RESULTS >>>
Image courtesy of SRO/JEP
