Vanthoor Takes Slovakia Ring Pole for WRT

Belgian Audi Club Team WRT driver Laurens Vanthoor claimed his second consecutive Blancpain GT Series pole position at the Slovakia Ring today.

While his WRT team mates hit trouble in qualifying, with Stéphane Ortelli and Mateusz Lisowski ending their qualifying runs in the gravel trap at turn six, Vanthoor’s No. 1 Audi R8 LMS ultra battled with Dutchman Jeroen Bleekemolen for pole position.

Driving the No. 28 Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Gallardo FL2 GT3, Bleekemolen ran wide on his first timed lap, due to an ABS problem. Vanthoor made no mistake and put in a fastest lap time of 1:58.117, with just over four minutes left in the session.

Bleekemolen pushed hard and put in a couple of fastest sector times, but a slower second sector resulted in the Dutchman finishing qualifying in second place, 0.142s behind Vanthoor.

Third fastest was the No. 6 Phoenix Racing Audi R8 LMS ultra of Markus Winkelhock and Niki Mayr-Melnhof. Winkelhock’s fastest time in Q3 was over six tenths of a second behind the pace setter. WRT drivers Enzo Ide and René Rast will line-up fourth on the grid for the Qualifying Race later today.

Maximilian Götz and Nico Verdonck were the fastest Mercedes drivers, Blancpain Sprint Series points leader Götz qualifying the No. 84 HTP Motorsport Mercedes SLS AMG GT3 in fifth place.

The No. 34 ROAL Motorsport BMW Z4 GT3 of Stefano Colombo and David Fumanelli qualified sixth overall and first in Silver Cup. The Italian BMW was just 0.044s faster than HTP Motorsport rookies Luca Stolz and Lucas Wolf in the No. 86 Mercedes SLS AMG GT3.

RESULTS: Qualifying 1
RESULTS: Qualifying 2
RESULTS: Qualifying 3