Blancpain GT: Vanthoor puts WRT Audi on Brands pole

WRT Audi driver Laurens Vanthoor bounced back from a shunt in final free practice to top qualifying for this weekend's Brands Hatch Blancpain Sprint Series round.

The Belgian went fastest in second qualifying in the repaired Audi R8 LMS ultra he shares with Robin Frijns and then claimed the pole for Sunday morning's qualifying race with his only flying lap in the final session for the fastest 10 cars. His time of 1m23.269s put him nearly half a second up on the 1m23.703s set by Nicky Catsburg in the Reiter Lamborghini Gallardo LP560.

The performance followed an electrical problem in practice one and then major shunt when Vanthoor got on the grass exiting Westfield and backed into the barrier on the run to Dingle Dell in second practice.

"I'm really happy for the mechanics because we had a problem in FP1 and I destroyed the car on my first lap of FP2," Vanthoor said. "To be honest it was the perfect lap; I can't think right now where I could improve. I could feel the peak of the tires had gone and knew I couldn't improved."

Third place went to the second WRT Audi in the hands of Christopher Mies, whose 1m23.713s put him exactly one hundredth behind Catsburg and a similar margin ahead of fourth-placed Craig Dolby in the MRS Nissan GT-R NISMO.

Sixth place went to Sergio Jimenez in the best of the Team BMW Brazil Z4 GT3s on a 1m23.905s.

Joe Osborne was the fastest entry in Pro-Am in seventh place overall aboard the Triple Eight BMW and Jules Szymkowiak was quickest in the Silver Cup class in 15th driving the sole remaining HTP Bentley Continental GT3.

The German team's lead entry has been withdrawn from the event with chassis damage after Maximilian Buhk crashed at the bottom of Paddock Hill Bend in the opening practice session.

Originally on Autosport.com