Alessandro Pier Guidi set the fastest time in Thursday qualifying for the Total 24 Hours of Spa. The SMP Racing Ferrari the first of two Pro-Am class car at the top of the overall timesheets after the two qualifying sessions.
Pier Guidi, sharing the one of four Ferrari entered by the Russian team in the class with Alexey Basov, Alexander Skryabin and Matteo Bobbi set his best time on just the second lap of the first qualifying session. The early moments of the session were conducted under near perfect conditions in the bright sunshine of the day. However, through the session and into the night session that brought the day’s action to a close the track temperatures dropped, helping to protect Pier Guidi’s provisional pole.
Such was the disadvantage of the second session that only two to the top 20 that will contest Friday evening’s Superpole session – and only nine teams overall – set their best time during the second session.
Pier Guidi’s best lap (2:20.383) was just a fraction quicker than Stefan Mucke’s lap in the Beechdean AMR Vantage that put the British team into second place. The fastest Pro Cup car was the Manthey Racing Porsche, Marc Lieb responsible for the time of 1:20.782. Nicky Catsburg was the fastest driver for Marc VDS Racing in their #4 BMW Z4 that had earlier completed a 1-2 for the Belgian squad in the pre-qualifying session.
Free practice winners HTP Motorsport were fifth fastest, Maximilian Gotz the fastest man in a Merc with Thomas Jager sixth in the similar Black Falcon entry.
Every brand in the race will have at least one representative in the Superpole session. Alvaro Parente ensured the presence of the Hexis Racing McLaren with their eighth fastest time of the two sessions, Peter Kox was 13th fastest in the Blancpain Racing Lamborghini. Surprisingly the worst placed of all the manufacturers after the sessions was Audi which only has a single team in the top 20 in the form of the #1 Belgian Audi Club WRT that Laurens Vanthoor qualified 16th fastest with a lap in the night qualifying session. Nick Tandy was the other man to set a best time in the later session to put the Prospeed Competition Porsche 17th fastest.
In 34th overall Stephane Lemeret guaranteed the Sport Garage team pole in the Gentlemens’ Trophy class, though only by less than two tenths ahead of the Kessel Racing 458 GT3 of Giuseppe Ciro.
The 20 minute Superpole session for the top 20 teams is scheduled for 6:15pm local time (5:15pm UK time).
