Vanthoor Takes Second Consecutive Blancpain GT Pole

Photo: Vision Sport Agency

Dries Vanthoor has secured his second straight Blancpain GT Series pole position, taking the top spot for the Nürburgring Qualifying Race in Saturday morning’s qualifying session.

He set a lap time of 1:53.449 to put the No. 5 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT Audi R8 LMS he shares with Marcel Fassler on pole position, continuing the pair’s domination of the past two Blancpain GT Sprint Cup weekends.

Strakka Racing is enjoying improved pace with its McLaren 650S GT3s this weekend with the No. 59 car of Rob Bell and Andrew Watson qualifying second after the Northern Irishman provisionally topped the first qualifying session.

Five different manufacturers will be represented in the top-five grid spots as Andrea Caldarelli, Dominik Baumann and Daniel Keilwitz put their Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracan GT3, HTP Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 and Rinaldi Racing Ferrari 488 GT3 into third, fourth and fifth positions.

Keilwitz also took the Pro-Am pole, while Max van Splunteren secured the Silver Cup honors in his Attempto Racing Lamborghini.

Overall Blancpain GT points leaders Mirko Bortolotti and Christian Engelhart qualified 18th, failing to make it through to Q3, while Sprint Cup leaders Maxi Buhk and Franck Perera will start from eighth.

Q2 had two red flag periods as Lorenzo Case and Peter Terting both went off track in separate incidents. 

The Qualifying Race is set for 2 p.m. local time.

RESULTS: Qualifying

Jake Kilshaw

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