By alley - Jul 29, 2016, 4:01 AM ET

SPA 24H: McLaren sets early qualifying pace

McLaren led the way with Shane van Gisbergen in the first two sessions of qualifying for this weekend's Spa 24 Hours, the showpiece race for the Blancpain GT series.

Van Gisbergen claimed the top spot on his first flying lap at the start of the two-hour night qualifying session on Thursday evening aboard the #58 Garage 59 McLaren 650S courtesy of a 2m18.474s effort. That put the New Zealander just 0.058 seconds up on Maximilian Gotz in the HTP Mercedes-AMG GT3, who set his 2m18.532s in the opening 75-minute session.

Van Gisbergen said: "We were 19th at the end of the first qualifying session, so right on the edge [of making Friday's "super pole" session] and needed to do a better job. Of course, that has only got us into the super pole shootout but we are happy with where we are."

The Black Falcon Mercedes squad ended up third with a 2m18.603s set in the opening session from DTM driver Daniel Juncadella aboard its #56 pro-am class entry.

Best Audi was the factory R8 LMS run by two-time Spa winner WRT in fourth place with a 2m18.659s from Laurens Vanthoor.

Felix Rosenqvist was fifth for the French ASP Mercedes team and Christopher Haase sixth aboard the best of the Sainteloc Audis.

The best Bentley was the #8 Continental GT3 in ninth with Maxime Soulet

Nicky Catsburg put the best of the factory Rowe BMW M6 GT3s 19th.

The top 20 cars go through to the final super pole session, which takes place at 6pm local time on Friday.

LEADING QUALIFYING 1 TIMES:

Pos	Driver	Team	Car	Time	Gap
1	T.Jager, M.Gotz, G.Paffett	AMG - Team HTP Motorsport	Mercedes	2m18.532ss	2m18.532s
2	M.Toril, O.Morley, A.Al Faisal, D.Juncadella	Black Falcon	Mercedes	2m18.603ss	0.071s
3	L.Vanthoor, R.Rast, N.Muller	Audi Sport Team WRT	Audi	2m18.659ss	0.127s
4	T.Vautier, R.van der Zande, F.Rosenqvist	AMG - Team AKKA ASP	Mercedes	2m18.729ss	0.197s
5	B.Schneider, M.Engel, Y.Buurman	AMG - Team Black Falcon	Mercedes	2m18.949ss	0.417s
6	G.Guilvert, M.Parisy, C.Haase	Sainteloc	Audi	2m19.082ss	0.550s
7	P.Giauque, H.Hassid, F.Perera, N.Lapierre	ISR	Audi	2m19.100ss	0.568s
8	S.Leonard, M.Meadows, R.Frijns	Belgian Audi Club Team WRT	Audi	2m19.111ss	0.579s
9	T.O.-Cole, I.Loggie, C.MacLeod, A.Meyrick	Team Parker Racing	Bentley	2m19.144ss	0.612s
10	M.Martin, P.Eng, A.Sims	ROWE Racing	BMW	2m19.188ss	0.656s

LEADING QUALIFYING TWO TIMES

Pos	Driver	Team	Car	Time	Gap
1	S.Gisbergen, C.Ledogar, R.Bell	Garage 59	McLaren	2m18.474ss	2m18.474s
2	G.Guilvert, M.Parisy, C.Haase	Sainteloc	Audi	2m18.764ss	0.290s
3	D.Baumann, J.Jaafar, M.Buhk	AMG - Team HTP Motorsport	Mercedes	2m18.787ss	0.313s
4	L.Bacheta, I.Dontje, C.Schmid	HTP Motorsport	Mercedes	2m18.801ss	0.327s
5	A.Soucek, W.Reip, M.Soulet	Bentley Team M-Sport	Bentley	2m18.897ss	0.423s
6	G.Smith, V.Abril, S.Kane	Bentley Team M-Sport	Bentley	2m18.968ss	0.494s
7	P.Lathouras, M.Rugolo, A.P.Guidi	AF Corse	Ferrari	2m19.099ss	0.625s
8	R.Ineichen, J.Bleekemolen, M.Bortolotti	GRT Grasser Racing Team	Lamborghini	2m19.236ss	0.762s
9	L.Machitski, M.Attard, M.Mapelli, T.K.-Smith	Barwell Motorsport	Lamborghini	2m19.356ss	0.882s
10	N.Catsburg, S.Dusseldorp, D.Werner	ROWE Racing	BMW	2m19.380ss	0.906s