Bohemia Energy racing with Scuderia Praha takes #Hankook 12H SPA pole

The Bohemia Energy racing with Scuderia Praha Ferrari 488 GT3 (#11, Jiří Písařík / Josef Kral / Matteo Malucelli) has qualified on pole position for the 2019 Hankook 12H SPA. Matteo Malucelli lapped the 7.004km Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in 2m 18.266s to collect the Czech team’s first 24H SERIES powered by Hankook pole position of the season.

The Scuderia Praha Ferrari, which started this year’s European Championship with a commanding victory at Mugello, beat the Winward Racing / HTP Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 (#25, Russell Ward / Bryce Ward / Philip Ellis) on the latter’s return to the series by just under four-tenths of a second in a very tight qualifying session. The latter was the fastest of the A6-Am runners at Spa, and will start ahead of the WRT Audi R8 LMS (#27, Stanislav Minsky / Steijn Schothorst / Marco Seefried / Rik Breukers).

Fluid dropped on the run into Eau Rouge during the earlier TCE qualifying session had looked to disrupt GT proceedings, but ultimately didn’t appear to slow the frontrunners too much.

“This time was more or less our maximum,” Matteo Mallucelli explained to radiolemans.com’s Bruce Jones. “We lost two-tenths because Eau Rouge was a bit dirty, but the rest of the track was clean without traffic. So yeah, really good job so far today.”

The GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracán GT3 (#63, Mirko Bortolotti / Christian Engelhart / Rolf Ineichen / Stefano Costantini) will start 6th overall on the road, and rounds out the top three in A6-Pro. The Hankook 24H DUBAI polesitter looked assured of a second row starting position only to be bumped in the session’s closing moments by the Herberth Motorsport Porsche 991 GT3 R (#91, Daniel Allemann / Ralf Bohn / Robert Renauer / Alfred Renauer) and the Wochenspiegel Team Monschau Ferrari 488 GT3 (#22, Georg Weiss / Leonard Weiss / David Perel / Jochen Krumbach / Oliver Kainz), both of which complete the A6-Am top three.

The SPX class will be led away at the green flag by Vr Racing by Qvick Motors (#709, Tom van Rompuy / Erik Qvick / John Rasse), which just pipped fellow MARC II V8 runners Cor Euser Racing (#717, Cor Euser / Einar Thorsen) despite starting out on-track and bringing out the session’s only yellow flag. Cor Euser’s eponymous outfit will still start ahead of the JR Motorsport BMW M3 F80 (#202, Ted van Vliet / Ward Sluys / Michael Verhagen), the third fastest SPX runner.

In an inter-class battle that went down to the line, the Modena Motorsports Porsche 991-II Cup (#916, John Shen / Francis Tjia / Philippe Descombes / Benny Simonsen) secured ‘991’ pole position ahead of MRS GT-Racing (#980, Pablo Otero / Wolfgang Triller / Peter Terting) in the closing moments. The latter has already been forced to replace its car after an enormous shunt in private test, but will nevertheless start ahead of PGmotorsport.NL (#992, Thijs Heezen / Jos Menten) after an impressive recovery.

Red Camel-Jordans.nl on top in TCE at the Hankook 12H SPA

The Red Camel-Jordans.nl CUPRA TCR (#101, Ivo Breukers / Rik Breukers / Francis Tjia) has taken TCE pole position for the second round of the 2019 European Championship in a Code 60-affected qualifying session. Rik Breukers posted a 2m 32.252s around the 7.004km Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps to secure a comfortable top spot for the 2019 Hankook 12H SPA ahead of the AC Motorsport Audi RS3 LMS (#188, Stephane Perrin / Vincent Radermecker / James Kaye), with which it will share the front row.

With just three minutes of TCE qualifying to complete, a Code 60 caution period was called owing to fluid dropped on the run into Eau Rouge.

“We worked a lot on the setup yesterday and this morning, so I think that paid off,” Rik Breukers explained to radiolemans.com’s Bruce Jones. “We think we have improved since last year, and there might be a few more tenths in the car. We could definitely have found that out with another run, but unfortunately, with the Code 60, we couldn’t finish that last lap.”

Impressively, the AC Motorsport Audi had looked set to miss qualifying altogether after a heavy accident during yesterday’s optional private test. This year’s Hankook 24H DUBAI TCE pole sitter will start just ahead of the GDL Racing Audi RS3 LMS DSG (#157, Andres Josephsohn / Dimitris Deverikos / Rory Penttinen), which rounds out both the TCE and TCR-class top three.

The CWS Engineering Ginetta G55 (#378, Colin White / Ian Stinton / Jean-Francois Brunot) will start 4th on the road and as the SP3-class pole sitter, having got the better of nearest rival, PROsport Performance (#1, Rodrigue Gillion / Nico Verdonck / Akhil Rabindra / Michael Munemann). The reigning GT European Champion will start its second 24H SERIES powered by Hankook event with the brand new Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 as the 2nd fastest SP3-class runner in 6th overall, just behind the Holmgaard Motorsport Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR DSG (#102, Magnus Holmgaard / Jonas Holmgaard / Roy Edland / Martin Gøtsche).

The Intersport Racing BMW M3 (#614, Peter Hardman / Stuart Wright / Kevin Clarke) ended the 30-minute session on A3-class pole position and will start 7th on the road. The British team’s nearest competition will come courtesy of the Synchro Motorsport Honda FK8-Civic Type-R (#676, Alyn James / Daniel Wheeler / Matt Neal) and the first of two Peugeot RCZ entries for Dan Agro Racing (#685, Nicolaj Kandborg / Lars Seistrup  / Mikkel Gregersen / Steffan Jusjong).

This year’s Hankook 12H SPA will start this afternoon at 14.05 hrs local time, and will conclude on Saturday at 17.53 hrs local time. After almost four hours of endurance racing action has been completed, there will be a brief break before the green flag is flown once again tomorrow morning at 10.05 hrs local time. Live timing and live streaming of the race in HD quality with commentary by Radiolemans.com will be available on the series’ website. The streaming will also be uploaded on the series’ Youtube channel. Regular updates will be published on Twitter (@24HSeries), Facebook (24H Series) and Instagram (24H Series). Further information can be found at www.24hseries.com.