Engel Pips Vanthoor to 24H Spa Pole

Photo: SRO

Maro Engel narrowly beat Laurens Vanthoor to pole for the Total 24 Hours of Spa in a close-fought Super Pole session on Friday evening.

Engel, as the last driver to set a time in Super Pole, posted a 2:18.588 in the factory Black Falcon Mercedes-AMG GT3 that he shares with fellow reigning Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup champions Luca Stolz and Yelmer Buurman. 

It marks Engel’s second consecutive 24-hour race pole after pulling off a similar feat at last month’s Nürburgring 24.

Vanthoor had been on provisional pole in the KÜS Team75 Bernhard entry but missed out by 0.017 seconds, forcing him, Earl Bamber and Timo Bernhard to settle for second place on the grid.

Davide Rigon took the SMP Racing Ferrari 488 GT3 to third, ahead of Nick Tandy in the best of the Porsche 911 GT3 Rs for ROWE Racing.

Daniel Serra put the HubAuto Corsa car fifth, making it two Ferraris in the top five, ahead of a trio of Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evos qualified by Dries Vanthoor, Nico Mueller and Mattia Drudi.

The session had no major incidents although a couple of cars, including the No. 35 KCMG Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 and No. 563 Orange 1 FFF Racing Team Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo, had time added to their laps times for leaving the pit box at the wrong moment.

Drudi took Silver Cup pole as the only non-Pro Cup driver in the session, sharing the No. 55 Attempto Racing Audi with brothers Pieter and Steijn Schothorst.

Pro-Am and Am Cup poles were decided in Thursday’s qualifying sessions as none of those cars made it into the Super Pole shootout. 

Remon Vos, Darren Burke, Christiaan Frankenhout and Tom Onslow-Cole secured Pro-Am honors for Ram Racing, while Barwell Motorsport’s Adrian Amstutz, Leo Machitski, Richard Abra and Patrick Kujala are on Am Cup pole.

The race gets underway at 4:30 p.m. local time.

RESULTS: Super Pole

Jake Kilshaw

Jake Kilshaw is a UK-based journalist. He is a graduate of Politics and International Relations.