After heavy rain disrupted Night Practice last night, and BMW Team Schnitzer’s Sheldon van der Line topped the times, it was Yelmer Buurman’s turn to sit atop the timing screens during the morning’s Pre-Qualifying at Kyalami.
In an extremely tight session under blue skies, the Dutchman set the best time, a 1:42.427, a tenth off the best time from Thursday set by Nick Tandy in testing. The top 18 all managed to get within a second of Buurman, setting up what should be thrilling Qualifying and Shootout sessions later.
The #107 M-Sport Bentley of local favourite Jordan Pepper ended up 0.121s off Buurman in the session after leading the way 40 minutes in. But he was pushed to second, his time 0.019 quicker than the Dinamic Motorsport Porsche which slotted in third after a 1:42.567 from Matt Campbell, making it three makes in the top three.
Remarkably, GruppeM’s #999 Mercedes featuring title race leader Maxi Buhk in its line-up finished fourth in the running. After a big off in testing yesterday from Maro Engel, the team, and three local bodyshop staff ensured GruppeM Racing’s Mercedes-AMG was repaired in time for Pre-Qualifying. Raffeale Marciello rewarded their hard work by finishing fourth, just 0.151s down on Buurman’s time.
KCMG’s Intercontinental GT Challenge debutant Joao Paulo de Oliveira ensured four different manufacturers featured in the top-five. His Nissan GT-R, which led for a time, finished half-a-tenth ahead of KUS Team 75 Bernhard’s Porsche.
Elsewhere, Honda Team Motul finished eighth, the first of the BMWs (the #42 Schnitzer M6) was 11th and Audi’s quickest R8 (the #29 Land example) could only manage 13th.
Watch qualifying and Pole Shootout live on the IGTC website from 14:45 and 16:25 this afternoon.
Photo courtesy of IGTC
