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Intercontinental GT Challenge

AKKA-ASP Merc Tops Qualifying as Super Pole Lineup Set

No. 88 AKKA-ASP Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo quickest in incident-filled qualifying session…

Photo: Kevin Pecks/SRO

AKKA-ASP topped qualifying for the TotalEnergies 24 Hours of Spa, leading the 20 cars that will advance to Super Pole for the joint Intercontinental GT Challenge powered by Pirelli and Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup round.

Raffaele Marciello, Dani Juncadella and Jules Gounon combined for a best average of 2:18.433 in the No. 88 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, outpacing the all-factory driver-crewed No. 95 Garage 59 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 by 0.433 seconds.

The No. 66 Attempto Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo was third quickest, ahead of the No. 4 Team HRT Mercedes in fourth and pair of Walkenhorst Motorsport BMW M6 GT3s, which completed the top-six.

CMR’s Bentley Continental GT3 was quickest of the Silver class cars in seventh overall, ahead of the No. 22 Martini GPX Racing entry, which was best of the Porsche 911 GT3 Rs in eighth. 

The Nos. 163 and 114 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evos from Orange 1 FFF Racing Team and Emil Frey Racing, respectively, completed the top-ten overall.

All nine GT3 manufacturers present at Spa reached the shootout, as both Iron Lynx Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020s and JOTA’s single McLaren 720s GT3 also made the cut.

Attempto’s No. 99 Audi was the first car to miss out on Super Pole and is set to start 21st overall, with a total of four Silver class cars advancing.

Qualifying was marred by an accident by Tim Zimmermann, who crashed his Silver class Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo at Raidillon in Q2, resulting in a 30-plus minute stoppage due to track cleanup and barrier repairs.

Zimmermann was uninjured from the shunt, which stopped the clock with 8 minutes and 11 seconds remaining in the session.

A second red came out for the No. 31 Team WRT Audi of Ryuichiro Tomita, who also spun at Raidillon.

The Free Practice and Pre Qualifying pace-setting No. 32 WRT Audi was among the high-profile entries to miss Super Pole after Dries Vanthoor failed to set a flying lap during the red-affected Q2.

It is provisionally set to start 55th in the 58-car field when factoring in Vanthoor’s failed qualifying attempt.

Among the other notable cars to miss the top-20 included the No. 21 Rutronik Racing Porsche (22nd), the No. 54 Dinamic Motorsport Porsche (23rd) as well all three Sainteloc Audis. 

The No. 3 Schnabl Engineering Porsche is set to start 25th, ahead of the No. 18 KCMG Porsche in 27th and HubAuto Racing’s Pro Mercedes in 41st.

The No. 188 Garage 59 Aston Martin claimed a clear Pro-Am pole with the 32nd quickest time overall, while the No. 166 Haegeli by T2 Racing Porsche scored top qualifying honors in the two-car Am class.

Night practice was scheduled to get underway at 10:30 p.m. local time, prior to the delays for the red flags, and is slated to run through midnight.

Super Pole is set for a 7:50 p.m. start time on Friday evening.

RESULTS: Qualifying

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

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