Cairoli Takes 24H Spa Pole in Bronze Cup Porsche

Photo: Jules Beaumont/SRO

Matteo Cairoli has claimed pole position for the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa, with Porsche breaking Mercedes-AMG’s four-year stranglehold at Superpole in the Belgian endurance classic.

Cairoli stormed to a best lap of 2:16.880 in his No. 20 Huber Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R to edge out the Pro class No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 of Alessio Rovera by 0.116 seconds.

It came in an intense conclusion to the session, when third-placed Klaus Bachler in the No. 911 Pure Rxcing Porsche ran through the gravel while trying to make a second-lap improvement.

The Italian driver, in his Bronze Cup entry, delivered the first overall pole for Porsche in the event’s history, and also in the first non-Pro class entry to claim outright top qualifying honors in recent memory.

This was largely due to a mixed-condition qualifying session on Thursday evening that saw 13 of the 20 Pro class cars miss Superpole.

Cairoli will share driving duties with co-drivers Antares Au, Tim Heinemann and Jannes Fittje in the twice-around-the-clock enduro.

Bachler’s No. 911 Porsche will start third on the grid, followed by Franck Perera in the No. 6 K-PAX Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo in fourth and the No. 5 Optimum Motorsport McLaren 720S GT3 Evo of Dean MacDonald, who completed the top-five overall.

MacDonald claimed Gold Cup class pole honors in the process, ahead of the No. 40 Tresor Orange 1 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II of Ricardo Feller in sixth and the No. 58 Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini of Fabrizio Crestani in seventh.

Fred Makowiecki was eighth in the No. 44 CLRT Porsche, followed by Kelvin van der Linde’s No. 17 Scherer Sport PHX Audi in ninth and the No. 9 Boutsen VDS Racing Audi of Aurelien Panis, who completed the top-ten.

Maro Engel was the highest-placed Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo in 16th, in the German manufacturer’s bid for a fifth consecutive pole.

The CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa gets underway Saturday at 4:30 p.m. CEST (10:30 a.m. EDT) with live coverage on SRO’s GT World YouTube page, while a 45-minute warmup session is on tap for 9:15 p.m. tonight.

RESULTS: Superpole

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