Haase Quickest in Shortened Brands Hatch Pre-Qualifying

Christopher Haase put Audi squad Comtoyou Racing at the top of times in a red flag-shortened Pre-Qualifying session for the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Sprint Cup round at Brands Hatch.

The German driver posted a new fastest lap of the weekend with his 1:22.467 effort behind the wheel of the No. 11 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II that he shares with Lucas Legeret.

Emil Frey Racing Ferrari driver Giacomo Altoe finished 0.173 seconds behind Haase, who jumped ahead of the Italian with 47 minutes of the hourlong session complete.

However, four minutes later, the red flags were out after the other Ferrari 296 GT3 from Emil Frey crashed at the far end of the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit.

Thierry Vermeulen lost control of the No. 69 car through Westfield and spun multiple times at high speed over the grass before glancing the barriers at Dingle Dell.

The Dutch driver was able to bring the slightly damaged Ferrari back to the pits, but the session did not resume.

Lorenzo Patrese ended up third overall in Tresor Attempto Racing’s Silver Cup-leading Audi, while Comtoyou Racing set the pace in two classes as Gilles Magnus registered the quickest Gold Cup time aboard the Belgian team’s No. 21 Audi.

Magnus finished fourth overall, ahead of Timur Boguslavskiy in the Akkodis ASP Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo which led Free Practice in the hands of Raffaele Marciello.

Boguslavskiy led from a trio of Audis, one from Tresor Orange 1 and a pair from Sainteloc Junior Team, as Vermeulen’s co-driver Albert Costa came through in ninth.

The first of two back-to-back qualifying sessions for Sunday’s pair of GTWC Europe races takes place at 3:55 p.m. (10:55 a.m. ET).

RESULTS: Pre-Qualifying