Frijns Gives Audi First Pole of Season at Zolder

Photo: Vision Sport Agency

Robin Frijns will start this afternoon’s Blancpain GT Series Qualifying Race at Zolder from pole position having set the best time of the weekend in qualifying on Saturday morning.

The Belgian Audi Club Team WRT driver posted a lap time of 1:29.025 in Qualifying 3, enough to put he and co-driver Stuart Leonard on top in the No. 17 Audi R8 LMS.

It marks the German manufacturer’s first Blancpain GT pole of the season.

Andrew Watson will line up alongside the Audi this afternoon, with the Strakka Racing driver qualifying second in his No. 59 McLaren 650S GT3, going 0.107 seconds slower.

The No. 90 AKKA ASP Mercedes-AMG GT3 will start third, ahead of the No. 74 ISR Audi in fourth.

Championship leaders Mirko Bortolotti and Christian Engelhart could only secure fifth place, meanwhile.

The Italian driver had provisionally gone quickest at the start of Q3 before having his time deleted for track limits.

Christopher Mies and Alvaro Parente were among the drivers unable to make the final qualifying session, which is reserved for the fastest 17 cars combined from Q1 and Q2.

This was in part due to a premature end to Q2, with a spin from Jean-Philippe Belloc in the No. 89 AKKA ASP Mercedes.

This brought the red flag out with less than a minute on the clock, hampering many drivers’ fast lap efforts.

Q1 was also red-flagged for a while, as the Kessel Racing Ferrari 488 GT3 of Michael Broniszewski was collected following a spin midway through the session.

The Qualifying Race is set for 3 p.m. local time.

RESULTS: Qualifying

Jake Kilshaw

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