Iron Lynx Goes 1-2 in Qualifying as Superpole Places Set

Ferrari squad Iron Lynx finished first and second in qualifying for the TotalEnergies 24 Hours of Spa which determined the 20 participants in Friday’s Superpole shootout.

Antonio Fuoco, Daniel Serra and Davide Rigon combined for the best average time of 2:16.920 across three 15-minute sessions, with the No. 71 Ferrari trio beating their teammates Miguel Molina, James Calado and Nicklas Nielsen by 0.178 seconds.

Fuoco set the fastest lap in the first session for the Pro teams, which took place after an initial 15-minute run for entries in other categories with four-driver lineups.

Serra then finished second, 0.134 seconds behind Calado, in the next outing while the No. 71 Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 remained at the top of the leaderboard despite Rigon placing three-tenths behind Nielsen in the sister No. 51 car during Q4.

Jordan Pepper, Andrea Caldarelli and Marco Mapelli provisionally qualified third for Lamborghini squad Orange1 K-PAX Racing with an average of 2:17.237.

Luca Ghiotto, Christopher Haase and Mattia Drudi placed fourth in the best Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II from Audi Sport Team Tresor, which is run by Car Collection.

The top five was completed by the No. 32 Audi Sport Team WRT crew of Dries Vanthoor, Kelvin van der Linde and Charles Weerts.

Notable entries to miss out on Superpole included the Porsche 911 GT3 Rs from KCMG and EMA Motorsport, as well as Aston Martin team The Heart of Racing, McLaren outfit JOTA and the No. 46 WRT Audi featuring Valentino Rossi which ended up 25th.

KCMG was unable to set three lap times after middle driver Nick Tandy encountered a braking issue on entry to La Source, meaning the Hong Kong-based team is set to start near the back of the 66-car grid.

EMA Motorsport’s Rolex 24 at Daytona class winners Felipe Nasr, Matt Campbell and Mathieu Jaminet qualified 22nd, one place behind the BMW Junior Team which was the highest-placed car that failed to reach the shootout.

The teammate No. 98 ROWE Racing BMW M4 GT3 placed well within the top 20 in sixth, ahead of Audi Sport Team Attempto and the factory-supported Mercedes-AMG entries from GetSpeed Performance, Akkodis ASP and GruppeM Racing.

Porsche’s shootout representatives from the Pro class will be Dinamic Motorsport, Toksport WRT and 2019 Spa winner GPX Martini Racing which placed 19th.

Beechdean AMR’s Aston Martin Vantage GT3 also made it through, as did Audi Sport Team Sainteloc and three Emil Frey Racing Lamborghinis.

Emil Frey saw both of its Pro cars and the No. 14 Silver Cup entry reach the top 20. The No. 30 WRT Audi and the No. 777 Al Manar Racing by HRT Mercedes-AMG were the other Silver contenders to progress, adding a class battle to the Superpole mix.

The Gold Cup pole position was decided in Thursday qualifying, with Barwell Motorsport taking the top spot with its Lamborghini in 29th overall.

Ahmad Al Harthy, Sam De Haan, Alex MacDowall and Sandy Mitchell registered an average time of 2:18.325 to take the first 24 Hours of Spa pole for the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup’s new category.

Barwell narrowly beat class rival Winward Racing, which led the final session courtesy of Lucas Auer delivering the second-best outright time behind only Fuoco.

The No. 52 AF Corse Ferrari lineup of Stefano Costantini, Louis Machiels, Andrea Bertolini and Alessio Rovera led Pro-Am by a clear margin, with seven cars from other categories between it and the second-placed No. 24 Herberth Motorsport Porsche.

SPS Automotive Performance beat Walkenhorst Motorsport in the two-car battle for pole honors in Bronze Cup.

The first and second qualifying sessions were interrupted by red flags. The former was paused with eight minutes to go when the No. 911 Herberth Porsche stopped in a compromised position at Pouhon.

The stoppage in the early moments of Q2 came after Tyler Cooke spun Leipert Motorsport’s Silver Cup Lamborghini into the tire barriers at Raidillon.

RESULTS: Qualifying (combined)