Raffaele Marciello went fastest in Thursday’s Pre-Qualifying at the wheel of the #98 ROWE BMW, recording a time of 2:17.589 on his first flying lap of the hour-long session.
Alessio Rovera in the #51 AF Corse Ferrari was just 0.021 seconds slower, with Marvin Kirchhofer 0.038 off the benchmark in the #59 Garage 59 McLaren.
The fastest lap from a non-Pro car was recorded by the #27 Bronze Cup QMMF by Sainteloc Audi, which slotted in fifth overall courtesy of Julian Hanses’ effort.Conditions were much more settled than in the rain-hit Free Practice session, albeit with some lingering damp patches of track, and the top 20 lap times by the end of session were covered by a second.
Proceedings were incident-free until with approximately 30 minutes remaining, Gabriele Piana suffered a heavy accident at Raidillon in the #81 Winward Racing Mercedes, bringing out the red flags and leaving the car’s participation in Qualifying in doubt.
Green-flag running resumed briefly before the clock hit zero, with race director Neils Wittich then running a mock Full Course Yellow to get all drivers and accustomed to the procedure ahead of the race.
