It is the Audi of the CSA Racing team that stands out at the end of the Pre-Qualifying of GT World Challenge Europe/Intercontinental GT Challenge, with the protagonists who continued to prefer preparation over multiple laps in view of the 24h of Spa which will take place in weekend.
On the Circuit des Ardennes the beautiful sun continued to warm the environment quite a bit, even exceeding 30°C at lunchtime and the fans were starting to arrive both in the paddock and in the stands, visibly hot.
In the 60 minutes available there was only one Full Course Yellow when Jop Rappange got stuck in the sand in ‘Fagnes’ with his Porsche. For the rest, practice ended 3′ early due to the red flag displayed to clean the track.
The best times came practically immediately from most of the competitors, with Arthur Rougier putting the Audi #111 at the top of the overall classification and in the Gold Cup Class with a good 2’15″330, beating the BMW # by 0″153 32 of Team WRT and by 0″171 the Lamborghini #163 of GRT.
Ranking which once again appears very short, but speaking with the drivers it became clear that a lot of ‘hide and seek’ is being played, also because there are once again over 30 cars in the space of 1″.
In the Top5 we find the Aston Martin #34 of Walkenhorst Motorsport and the Mercedes #48 designed by Mann-Filter, closely followed by the Ferrari #51 of AF Corse-Francorchamps Motors which precedes a trio of Mercedes.
Of these, the #77 of HRT, in addition to being 7th overall, obtained second place in the Gold Cup, with the #2 of GetSpeed and the #9 of Boutsen VDS behind it.
Among the top 10, which are not even half a second apart, we also have the #74 Kessel Racing Ferrari, with the #911 Pure Rxcing Porsche behind it.
#48 Mercedes-AMG Team MANN-FILTER, Mercedes AMG GT3: Maro Engel, Lucas Auer, Daniel Morad
Photo by: Emanuele Clivati | AG Photo
In the WRT pits, Valentino Rossi lapped in 2’16″174 before concentrating on a series of laps at race pace, and then giving way to Maxime Martin, who was also busy on long runs and without improving what he ultimately it is the 28th time of the M4 #46.
To complete the Gold Cup discussion, third place goes to the Audi #88 of Tresor Attempto, behind which are the Mercedes of Al Manar Racing #777 and 2 Seas Motorsport #60, plus the Audi #25 of Saintéloc Racing.
In the Bronze Cup the Ferrari #93 of Sky Tempesta Racing takes the virtual podium, with the 296 #52 of AF Corse behind it.
Coming instead to the Silver Cup Class, it is the Mercedes #10 of Boutsen VDS that puts the Audi #26 of Saintéloc and the Porsche #55 of Dinamic GT in line.
Finally, the PRO/AM Class sees the Mercedes of Triple Eight #888 in the lead with a good margin over the McLaren #100 of Team RJN and the duo of Mercedes prepared by Uno Racing/Landgraf #16 and Crowdstrike by Riley #4.
Now another break to reorganize ideas in view of the Qualifying at 8.35pm, visible in LIVE STREAMING on Motorsport.com.
The session will be divided into four heats, at the end of which the times will be averaged which will determine the Top20 who will compete for the Superpole tomorrow.
#GTWC #Spa #PreQualifying #Audi #ahead #BMW #Lamborghini