Vanthoor puts Audi on Slovakia Blancpain pole

WRT Audi driver Laurens Vanthoor claimed pole position for Saturday afternoon's qualifying race at the Slovakia Ring round of the Blancpain Sprint Series.

Vanthoor, who shares his Audi R8 LMS ultra with Cesar Ramos, took top spot in qualifying with his first flying lap of the final Q3 session. His time of 1m58.187s was good enough for him to edge out Jeroen Bleekemolen's Grasser Lamborghini FLII by a tenth a half.

Bleekemolen went off at Turn 1 on his first flying lap, before putting in two laps good enough for second on the grid.

Vanthoor said: "On this track, new tyres make a big difference, so on the first lap I tried at full potential and it worked out."

Bleekemolen explained that an ABS problem had caused him to lock up at the start of his first lap.

"The car pulled to the left and I went into the gravel," he said. "I was lucky: 5km/h more, and I would have been stuck in the gravel and 5km/h less, and I would have been in the wall. I didn't have the confidence in the car on my first proper lap, so I think we could have had it today."

Markus Winkelhock, who had been on top in Q2 aboard his Phoenix Audi, ended up third, half a second behind Bleekemolen, after losing time in the final sector.

Fourth place went to Rene Rast in the second of the WRT Audis with a time a further tenth back.

Pole in the Silver Cup class was claimed by David Fumanelli in the best of ROAL Motorsport's pair of BMW Z4s, while Marc Basseng took qualifying honours in Pro-Am in his Phoenix Audi with his time from Q1.