– Pure Rxcing from the Bronze Cup astonishes with overall best time
– First in the Pro class for Porsche’s customer team Manthey EMA
– Track conditions worsen with increasing rain
– 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps gets underway on Saturday at 4:30 pm
Six of the 14 Porsche 911 GT3 R cars made it into the top 20 after the four-part qualifying for the 24-hour race at Spa-Francorchamps. This means they are eligible to take part in the Super Pole session tomorrow afternoon and fight for the best grid positions. The average fastest time of all four drivers was achieved by Pure Rxcing’s 911, driven by Aliaksandr Malykhin, Joel Sturm, Marco Seefried and Klaus Bachler. Subsequently, the quartet also secured first place in the Bronze Cup on Thursday evening. In the Pro classification, the 911 GT3 R fielded by Manthey EMA came out on top. The endurance classic starts on Saturday at 4:30 pm (CEST).
In increasingly difficult weather conditions, the Porsche customer teams delivered outstanding performances with the 911 GT3 R at Spa-Francorchamps. Averaging the fastest lap times of all drivers, the GT3 racer campaigned by Pure Rxcing, which contests the Bronze Cup, prevailed. This achievement was mostly thanks to Aliaksandr Malykhin: The UK racer set a fast time of 2:18.937 minutes early in the first quarter of the qualifying session. Afterwards, an accident interrupted the session. After the restart, the track conditions had deteriorated due to heavier rain that drivers struggled to improve their times. Malykhin’s teammates Joel Sturm and Marco Seefried from Germany, as well as the Austrian Klaus Bachler then turned Malykhin’s top performance into a surprising best time of the whole field.
Positions two, six and eight in the Bronze Cup also went to Porsche customer teams. Huber Motorsport’s No. 20 Porsche 911 shared by Antares Au (Hong Kong), the German DTM driver Tim Heinemann, Matteo Cairoli from Italy and Jannes Fittje (Germany) occupied position three in the overall classification. CLMR’s 911 GT3 R driven by the all-French quartet of Clément Mateu, Hugo Chevalier, Steven Palette and works driver Frédéric Makowiecki progressed to sixth overall, while the Herberth Motorsport car ranked eighth in the overall timesheet. Herberth Motorsport relies on Germans Alfred and Robert Renauer as well as Ralf Bohn with Dutchman Kay van Berlo.
The three Pro-911 racing cars tackled the qualifying with a handicap: with just three drivers per car, they were only permitted to head out onto the track in the second quarter – by then, however, the rain had already intensified. The so-called Grello run by the customer team Manthey EMA made the most of this disadvantage. Ex-Porsche Junior Julien Andlauer from France, as well as the two works drivers Kévin Estre (France) and local hero Laurens Vanthoor still managed to advance to seventh overall. Rutronik Racing and Dinamic GT Huber Racing, however, missed out on reaching the Super Pole session.
In P20, Australians Stephen and Brenton Grove can look forward to taking part in the Top-20 time trial as the sixth and last 911 GT3 R crew. They will be supported in their Grove Racing team by fellow Australian Anton de Pasquale and Earl Bamber. The New Zealander won the 24 Hours of Le Mans with the 919 Hybrid in 2015 and 2017 as a Porsche works driver.
The final hunt for the top 20 grid positions begins on Friday between 3:35 pm and 4:05 pm (CEST). The 24-hour race on the Belgian Grand Prix circuit gets underway on Saturday at 4:30 pm local time. The long-distance classic is considered the most significant event for GT3 cars worldwide and counts towards the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup as well as the Intercontinental GT Challenge (IGTC). Drivers and cars earn points for the GT World Challenge after six, twelve and 24 hours. The race will be live-streamed on the website www.intercontinentalgtchallenge.com.
Qualifying quotes
Sebastian Golz (Project Manager Porsche 911 GT3 R): « That was an excellent qualifying for us and the Porsche customer teams. Six 911 GT3 R cars in the top 20 – that’s a fantastic result. Regardless of whether it’s the Pro, Pro-Am or Bronze Cup category, the guys did a super job. Of course, some had luck on their side with the driest condition in the first session. But still, the last three qualifying quarters were very wet and tricky for everyone. Tomorrow we face the Super Pole session. Let’s see what we can do there. Everyone’s feeling positive, which is the most important thing this weekend. »
Aliaksandr Malykhin (Porsche 911 GT3R #911): « I’m so proud of our team. We did a great job under tricky conditions. The mood among us drivers is great and we help each other tremendously by sharing information about the track conditions and our 911 GT3 R. I managed to lay the foundations with my lap time, and my teammates and our engineers then built on that perfectly to get us into the Super Pole. »
Tim Heinemann (Porsche 911 GT3 R #20): « Of course, we’re super happy to qualify for the Super Pole. That was quite unexpected. We were lucky enough to benefit from driving in the dry Q1 segment. A top-20 spot is a great place to start the race, which we will prepare for in tomorrow’s warm-up. »
Kévin Estre (Porsche 911 GT3 R #92): « What a crazy qualifying! The decisive factors for us were when to go out on track with which tyre and with which air pressure. The team did a great job in this respect. We were the best-placed car from the Pro category – which, because we’re a three-driver crew, we weren’t allowed to take part in the dry first qualifying heat. We all turned flawless laps which contributed to us making it into the Super Pole. »
Laurin Heinrich (Porsche 911 GT3R #96): « Given that we weren’t eligible to participate in the first qualifying quarter in dry conditions, it was obviously very difficult to achieve a good average lap time. We did our best, but it wasn’t quite enough, even though our Porsche 911 GT3 R was very fast in the rain. So we start my first 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps from the 30th grid spot. It’s a long race, so nothing is lost yet. »
Qualifying result
1. (BC) Bachler/Malykhin/Sturm/Seefried (A/UK/D/D), Porsche 911 GT3 R #911, 2:28.569 minutes
2. (1st GC) De Haan, Gamble, Fagg, Macdonald (GB/GB/GB/GB) McLaren 720S GT3 EVO #5, 2:28.923 minutes
3. (2nd BC) Au/Heinemann/Cairoli/Fittje (HK/D/I/D), Porsche 911 GT3 R #20, 2:29.103 minutes
6. (4th BC) Palette/Mateu/Makowiecki/Chevalier (F/F/F/F), Porsche 911 GT3 R #44, 2:30.323 minutes
7. (1st Pro) Vanthoor/Estre/Andlauer (B/F/F). Porsche 911 GT3 R #92, 2:30.456 minutes
8. (5th BC) Bohn/A. Renauer/R. Renauer/van Berlo (D/D/D/NL), Porsche 911 GT3 R #91, 2:30.497 minutes
20. (7th BC) B. Grove/S. Grove/Bamber/de Pasquale (AUS/AUS/NZ/AUS), Porsche 911 GT3 R #23, 2:31.502 minutes
30. (15th Pro) Preining/Heinrich/Olsen (A/D/N), Porsche 911 GT3 R #96, 2:32.039 minutes
31. (9th BC) /Jewiss/Meyrick/Maassen (UK/UK/UK/NL), Porsche 911 GT3 R #62, 2:32.104 minutes
35. (2nd PAC) Leutwiler/Jacoma/Fontana/Menzel (CH/CH/CH/D), Porsche 911 GT3 R #24, 2:32.405 minutes
37. (16th Pro) Güven/Müller/Engelhart (TR/D/D) Porsche 911 GT3 R #54, 2:32.704 minutes
55. (17th BC) Sager/Nakken/Barker/Zöchling (A/N/UK/D), Porsche 911 GT3 R #55, 2:35.620 minutes
58. (8th SC) Sathienthirakul/Rappange/di Amato/de Leener (T/NL/I/UK), Porsche 911 GT3 R #56, 2:38.436 minutes
67. (10th PAC) Tjia/Shen/Simonsen/Beche (HK/HK/DKCH), Porsche 911 GT3 R #216, no time
68. (11th PAC): Washington/Sofronas/Bleekemolen/Long (USA/USA/NL/USA), Porsche 911 GT3 R #132, no time
Pro = Pro class; PAC = Pro-Am Cup; GC = Gold Cup; SC = Silver Cup; BC = Bronze Cup.