Dirk Werner Fastest In Spa 24 Qualifying

Dirk Werner put the No. 77 BMW Sports Trophy Team Marc VDS BMW Z4 GT3 on top of the charts in the first qualifying session for the Total 24 Hours of Spa.

The German driver lapped the seven kilometre-long circuit in 2:19.089 early in the session and none of the drivers in the other 59 cars that took part in qualifying were able to beat his time. His fastest time was over a second-and-a-half than last year’s pole.

Belgian Audi Club Team WRT’s No. 3 Audi R8 LMS ultra, driven by Christopher Mies, Frank Stippler and James Nash, was second fastest, ending the session 0.041s behind the BMW. ART Grand Prix’ No. 99 McLaren was third fastest, 0.159s slower than the BMW.

Fastest in Pro-Am was the No. 50 AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia, a great result following incidents in the first two sessions. The Ferrari, driven at Spa by Andrew Danyliw, Simon Knap, Andrea Sonvico and Alessandro Pier Guidi, was almost three tenths off the pace of the McLaren.

Once again the session was red-flagged twice. The No. 458 GT Corse by Rinaldi, which won the first three rounds in the Gentlemen Trophy, crashed 35 minutes into the session and the session was stopped to recover the car. 12 minutes after the restart the session was stopped again, as the No. 17 Insightracing by Flex-Box Ferrari stopped at the Bus Stop.

Right before the end of the session Duncan Tappy, driving the No. 8 M-Sport Bentley Continental GT3, stopped on track. The car was pushed to a safe place and didn’t rejoin the session.