Qualifying proper for the 2015 Spa 24 Hours got underway on schedule at 8pm local time, with this initial one hour 15 minute session preceding a two-hour night segment during which every entered driver will have to record at least two laps in the dark.
Gianmaria Bruni’s marker from pre-qualifying didn’t remain intact for long, with Laurens Vanthoor in the #1 WRT Audi, Nick Catsburg in the #46 Marc VDS BMW, Maxime Martin in the #45 Marc VDS BMW, Nicki Thiim in the #5 Phoenix Audi, Andre Lotter in the #6 Phoenix Audi (below), Yelmer Buurman in the #21 Black Falcon Mercedes, Stefan Mucke in the #32 Aston and Bruni himself all eclipsing it in the early stages of this session. BMW’s Bruno Spengler (#9) and Audi’s Frank Stippler (#2) were also quicker before long.
Local hero Maxime Soulet finally got a decent Bentley time on the board about 20 minutes into the session, going provisionally fourth with a 2:18.472 in the #8 Continental. At this point in proceedings, Martin (below) was fastest for Marc VDS with a 2:18.397, ahead of Vanthoor’s 2:18.406 and Bruni’s 2:18.436.
However, the stewards determined that the #8 Bentley’s fastest lap time would be cancelled at the end of the session due to track limits infringements. A similar penalty was applied to the #90 Duqeine Engineering Ferrari – an Am Cup car.
Bernd Schneider was the next man to improve, getting the #18 Black Falcon Mercedes from 10th to eighth overall with a 2:18.833 on the car’s ninth lap with just over half an hour of the session to run.
With 11 minutes to go, the fastest times were still unchanged and the red flags flew when Christophe Bouchut came to a halt on the exit of Blanchimont in the #70 GT Russian Mercedes. The car was quickly recovered, however, allowing running to resume within minutes.
Another red flag due to a crash for Christopher Mies in the #5 Audi brought proceedings to a premature end with just under five minutes to go. The German was unhurt and the team set about repairing the bodywork and suspension damage rapidly so its drivers could complete the mandatory two night laps.
That left the top 20 looking as follows ahead of the two-hour night qualifying session:
Late flyers from the #11 Kessel Ferrari and #2 Audi saw those cars move into third and seventh overall once track-limits penalties had been applied – one of them dropping the #47 AF Corse car to 18th from third. It was also confirmed during this session that the #73 MRS Nissan would take a five-place grid penalty from its final qualifying position for causing an avoidable collision during pre-qualifying.
SE
