Rosenqvist Takes First Blancpain GT Pole in Hungary

Photo: Vision Sport Agency

Felix Rosenqvist put AKKA ASP on pole for the Blancpain GT Series Qualifying Race at Hungaroring on Saturday, co-driving with Tristan Vautier in a Mercedes-AMG GT3.

Vautier topped the Qualifying 1 session but Rosenqvist came through in the third and final session to improve upon his co-driver’s time by almost one-second.

It marks the first Blancpain GT pole for the Swede.

“Tristan was P1 in the first qualifying session so obviously we knew the car was quick and that I had to target P1 from there on,” Rosenqvist said.

“In Q2 I struggled a bit with my driving, with the track limits and traffic so didn’t really manage a clean run. But in Q3 I sort of got my things together and tried to be safe with the track limits and just make a clean lap, and it worked.

“It was a small margin but I’m very happy to be P1 here where the field is very, very tough.”

Christopher Mies was second in the No. 33 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT Audi R8 LMS, 0.070 seconds down on Rosenqvist, while the No. 84 Mercedes of Dominik Baumann will start from third, ahead of the No. 1 WRT car.

The top-eight was made up by Mercedes and Audis, and highest-placed other car was the No. 63 Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracan GT3 of Nicolas Pohler and Mirko Bortolotti in ninth.

The Pro-Am pole also went to AKKA ASP, but in this case to Jean-Luc Beaubelique and Morgan Moullin-Traffort in the No. 87 car, while the top spot in Silver Cup was taken by Nicolaj Moller Madsen and Alessio Picariello for Phoenix Racing.

Claudio Sdanewitsch and Rino Mastronardi didn’t make it to the final Qualifying session but will start from Am class pole in the No. 55 AF Corse Ferrari F458 Italia GT3.

The 60-minute Qualifying Race will start at 5:15 p.m. local time.

RESULTS: Qualifying

Jake Kilshaw

Jake Kilshaw is a UK-based journalist. He is a graduate of Politics and International Relations.