SPA24H: Mercedes dominates super pole

Mercedes blocked out the top six positions in qualifying for the Spa 24 Hours round of the Blancpain GT Series.

DTM driver Maximilian Gotz claimed pole with a 2m17.671s aboard the factory Black Falcon Mercedes-AMG GT3. That put him more than three tenths up on the 2m18.025 posted by Clemens Schmid in the best of the HTP Mercedes during the "super pole" session for the fastest 20 cars after Thursday's qualifying periods.

Felix Rosenqvist was just nine thousandths behind in third with a 2m18.034s aboard the French Auto Sport Promotion team's factory-backed Mercedes.

"I nearly lost the car at Eau Rouge on the first lap – I was surprised that the tires were not ready," said Gotz, who won the Spa 24 Hours in 2013 and last raced in the Blancpain arena in '14. "Luckily I was able to put everything together on the second lap. I'm satisfied to be on pole against all the GT3 regulars and a lot of drivers from other series."

Maro Engel (factory Black Falcon), Maximilian Buhk (factory HTP) and pro-am class pole winner Daniel Juncadella (Black Falcon) completed the top six. Best of the rest behind the Mercedes was the factory WRT Audi R8 LMS of Laurens Vanthoor, whose 2m18.505s left him eight and a half tenths from the pole time.

Frank Perera took eighth for the ISR Audi squad, while Mirko Bortolotti and Maxime Soulet rounded out the top 10 for the Grasser Lamborghini and M-Sport Bentley teams.

The Garage 59 McLaren 650S in which Shane van Gisbergen had topped the Thursday sessions failed to set a time after stopping on track with an undisclosed problem.

The 69th running of the Spa 24 Hours starts at 4:30 p.m. local time on Saturday.

Originally on Autosport.com