Marciello fastest in Spa 24 Hours qualifying

With rain announced for Thursday evening, most teams and drivers chose to go for a quick qualifying lap during the first of two qualifying sessions. After the usual skirmishes, Raffaele Marciello in the No. 90 AKKA ASP Mercedes-AMG came out on top, a mere 0.113s quicker than the No. 2 Audi Sport Team WRT R8 of Fred Vervisch. James Calado, driving the No. 55 Kaspersky Motorsport Ferrari, ended the first session in third ... and those positions did not change during the second session, even though the expected rain did not appear.

"This quickest time is not really important, since we still have the Superpole tomorrow," Marciello said. "But it's good to know that we will be near the sharp end of the starting grid, which could be an advantage for the opening hours of the race."

Behind the top three, some of the favorites used that second session to get into the top 20, in order to secure their ticket for Friday's Superpole. The most notable of those were the leaders in the Blancpain GT Series driver standings, the drivers of the No. 63 Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini. Eventually Mirko Bortolotti clocked the sixth time.

With a whopping 36 cars within the same second – which is a record – some cars missed the Superpole session by the tiniest of margins: the No. 5 Audi Sport Team WRT R8 of Dries Vanthoor and multiple Le Mans 24 hours winners Marcel Fässler and André Lotterer was only 0.004s short of a position in the top-20.

Only one Pro-Am car made it to the Superpole this year, thanks to a flyer from Jonny Adam at the wheel of the No. 97 Oman Racing Team with TF Sport Aston Martin. The Monza Pro-Am Cup winner beat the next car in Pro-Am – the No. 912 Herberth Motorsport Porsche – by less than a quarter of a second, but that was enough to put 14 other cars in between them.

Fastest of the Am Cup drivers was again David Perel, at the wheel of the No. 888 Kessel Racing Ferrari. The South African finished up in 47th overall. Just like last year, Gregory Paisse took the pole position in the Groupe National, at the wheel of the No. 991 Speedlover Porsche.

The qualifying sessions were marred by two heavy crashes. Both the No. 00 Good Smile Racing & Team Ukyo Mercedes-AMG and the No. 22 Motul Team RJN Motorsport Nissan hit the tire barriers in the Raidillon, fortunately without consequences for the drivers. Both teams will do their utmost to get their cars ready in time.