Hofor Racing Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3s lock out front row for inaugural Hankook 12H ZANDVOORT
“We have the potential to be in contention for victory,” German driver Maximilian Buhk announced prior to qualifying for the inaugural Hankook 12H ZANDVOORT. Sure enough, the 21-year old German put the No. 1 Hofor Racing Mercedes-Benz (#1, Michael Kroll/Roland Eggimann/Kenneth Heyer/Christiaan Frankenhout/Maximilian Buhk) on pole in qualifying with a fastest time of 1:39.998 minutes. The Swiss team’s sister car with exactly the same driver line-up (#2, Michael Kroll/Roland Eggimann/Kenneth Heyer/Christiaan Frankenhout/Maximilian Buhk) qualified second in the hands of Christiaan Frankenhout with a time of 1:40.386 minutes, followed by the Scuderia Praha Ferrari 458 GT3 (#9, Jiri Pisarik/Jaromir Jirik/Peter Kox), driven to a lap time of 1:41.021 minutes by Peter Kox.
Initially, Hofor Racing’s No. 2 was on provisional pole with a lap time set by Michael Kroll, but then Maximilian Buhk came to the fore with a sequence of fast lap times in the No. 1 machine and emerged as the only driver to set a lap time of under 1:40 minutes. Frankenhout then took over the No. 2 car and improved the fastest lap time of that car, but still remained in second place. German Jörg Viebahn secured pole in the SP2 class with a lap time of 1:44,866 minutes in the Las Moras Racing Team Renault Mégane Trophy (#90, Luc Braams/Jan-Joris Verheul/Jörg Viebahn) while Sandor van Es, who is celebrating his 20th anniversary in motorsport this weekend, put the Nissan Nederland Nissan 370Z (#76, Sandor van Es/Niels Bouwhuis/Max Koebolt) on pole in the SP3 class with a lap time of 1:48.621 minutes.
Jochen Krumbach put the Top-Autoteile Racing BMW E46 WTCC (#30 Marco Schelp/Donald Molenaar/Jochen Krumbach) on pole in the A5 class, followed by the identical Tischner Motorsport entry (#29, Michael Tischner/Ulrich Becker/Yannik Trautwein/Matthias Tischner). The MDM Motorsport BMW 320 D WTCC (#82. Bas van de Ven/Simon Knap/Jeroen den Boer) claimed pole in the A3T class with a time of 1:50.698 minutes, set by Bas van de Ven, while Martin Byford put the Synchro Motorsport Honda Civic (#57, Alyn James/Stephen Ritchie/Martin Byford) on pole in the A2 class with 1:58.533 minutes. The most thrilling battle was fought out in the D1 class, in which the top three cars set lap times all within four tenths of a second. Eventually, Wubbe Herlaar emerged as the fastest driver with the SVDP BMW 120 D (#75, Spencer Vanderpal/Wubbe Herlaar) with 1:57.607 minutes, followed by Johan van Loo in the Recy Racing Team BMW 120D (#72, Jan de Vocht/Johan van Loo/Wim Meulders) and Rik Breukers in the Red Camel-Tech Tics SEAT Leon 2.0 TDI (#73, Rik Breukers/Bart Ogink/Alex de Vries/Rob Quirijnen).
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