Farnbacher Leads Pre-Qualifying Practice for Honda

Honda Racing led the way in Pre-Qualifying practice for the Kyalami 9 Hour courtesy of Mario Farnbacher’s 1:42.230 lap time set early in the 105-minute session.

Farnbacher was quick to reel off the best time of the morning aboard the No. 30 Honda NSX GT3 Evo, with the German driver topping the charts on his seventh lap.

The Honda that is also being driven by Renger van der Zande and Bertrand Baguette stayed ahead for the remainder of Pre-Qualifying despite improvements from other cars.

Second-quickest was Jordan Pepper who produced a 1:43.334 in the No. 7 M-Sport Bentley Continental GT3 which put the South African just 0.014 seconds off the top spot.

Bentley’s pair of cars had a strong session finishing second and third, with Seb Morris backing up Pepper’s time with a 1:42.695 to slot in just behind his fellow factory driver.

Intercontinental GT Challenge powered by Pirelli championship points leader Laurens Vanthoor placed fourth in the Dinamic Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R, while his brother Dries Vanthoor completed the top five for Audi Sport Team WRT on a 1:42.788.

Pre-Qualifying was briefly halted after half an hour by a red flag, which was caused by Kevin Estre rotating Dinamic’s gold No. 54 Porsche into the gravel at Turn 1 where it became beached.

At the same time, Martin Lechman strayed onto the gravel at the exit of Cheetah and looped Car Collection Motorsport’s privateer Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo around before stopping on the racing line, but the German driver was able to continue without assistance.

Next up at 2:20 p.m. local time (7:20 a.m. ET) is qualifying, which is formed of three 15-minute sessions for each driver in every crew. The top fastest three-man crews on average will advance to the top ten pole position shootout later today.

RESULTS: Pre-Qualifying