Buurman Quickest for Mercedes-AMG in Pre-Qualifying

Photo: Dirk Bogaerts/SRO

Yelmer Buurman led the way in Pre-Qualifying for the Kyalami 9 Hour, putting Mercedes-AMG on the top of the time charts for the first time of the weekend.

Buurman reeled off a best lap of 1:42.427 in the No. 10 SPS Automotive Performance-run entry, edging out the No. 107 Team M-Sport Bentley Continental GT3 of Jordan Pepper by 0.121 seconds.

Matt Campbell was third quickest in the No. 12 Dinamic Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R, which made it three different GT3 manufacturers in the top-three.

The freshly rebuilt No. 999 GruppeM Racing Mercedes, which returned to action for the first time since Maro Engel’s accident on Thursday, made a late-session improvement to fourth, with the No. 35 KCMG Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 completing the top-five.

Unlike the previous sessions, no major incidents occurred in the 1 hour and 45-minute session, which ran without any stoppages.

Qualifying, which will be split up into three sessions for each driver, gets underway at 2:45 p.m. local time, with the ten quickest times advancing to Pole Shootout.

RESULTS: Pre-Qualifying

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John