WRT Audi fills Baku BSS front row

WRT Audi driver Stephane Ortelli snatched pole position for the final round of the Blancpain Sprint Series by 0.038 seconds from teammate and overall Blancpain GT title hopeful Laurens Vanthoor.

"I was a bit disappointed at being told I was P2," said Vanthoor, "but when I heard it was Stephane [ahead], my teammate from last year, it wasn't so bad."

Jeroen Bleekemolen, who retains an outside chance of winning the BSS title, was third fastest in a Grasser Racing Lamborghini beset by ABS problems, while Sprint points leader Maximilian Gotz qualified his HTP Mercedes seventh.

"I had a big issue in Q2," said Bleekemolen, "the same as we had in Slovakia, where the front-left locked up. We really rely on the ABS here. Fortunately it started working again, but then I had a bit of traffic in Q3.

"It's a shame because I'd let the guy past on his fast lap and he didn't return the favor."

After extended rainfall earlier in the day the track slowly dried out during the session, which ended in twilight, 30 minutes behind schedule, after three enforced stoppages.

The first part of the session was red-flagged twice. With 7m44s left on the clock, Vincent Abril hit the wall at the exit of the final corner in the WRT Audi R8 he shares with fellow Silver Cup frontrunner Mateusz Lisowski, losing a wheel. The second stoppage came with 38sec remaining after many drivers went out for a last-ditch attempt to improve their times.

Thirteenth-placed Marc Basseng took too much curb at the exit of the second chicane as he began his first flying lap after leaving the pits, removing the front-left corner of his Phoenix Audi.

Benjamin Hetherington also brought out the red flags, mid-way through the second segment of the qualifying session, when he strayed wide in the Fortec Mercedes at the final corner and twitched into the outside barrier.

Originally on Autosport.com