Vanthoor puts WRT Audi on pole for Spa 24 Hours

WRT Audi driver Laurens Vanthoor claimed pole position for this weekend's Spa 24 Hours, the signature race for the Blancpain Endurance Series.

Vanthoor, who drives the lead WRT Audi R8 LMS ultra with Rene Rast and Markus Winkelhock, came out on top in the 20-minute Super Pole with a best time of 2m18.710s set on the second of his two flying laps. That put him just four hundredths of a second ahead of Alessandro Pier Guidi in his Pro-Am class Ferrari 458 Italia run by AF Corse.

Vanthoor said: "I pushed like hell and when my engineer said 'P1', I replied, 'Really?'.

"Pole position is not the most important thing, but I'm a Belgian driver racing for a Belgian team, so I couldn't have hoped for a better start."

The Audi R8 took the pole after receiving a series of breaks under the Balance of Performance rules ahead of the race: its base weight has been reduced by 10kg, the diameter of its engine air-restrictor increased and its minimum ride height lowered.

Third place went to an HTP Motorsport Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG driven by Stef Dusseldorp. The German ended up just under three tenths behind Pier Guidi in the car he shares with Sergei Afanasiev and Xavier Maassen.

Fourth and fifth places went to the Sainteloc and WRT Audis driven by Edward Sandstrom and Christopher Mies respectively with times separated by just half a tenth.

Steven Kane qualified the only M-Sport Bentley Continental GT3 to make it into Super Pole in sixth place on a 2m19.093. The top McLaren, BMW and Aston Martin entries filled eighth, ninth and 10th positions.

Kevin Estre was quickest in the #99 ART McLaren MP4-12C, Nicky Catsburg was the best BMW Z4 driver in a Pro-Am entry from the TDS Racing team and Stefan Mucke took Aston Martin honours for Beechdean.

The Spa 24 Hours, round four of the BES, starts at 4:30 p.m. local time on Saturday.