24H BARCELONA 2013 – QUALIFICATION
Stefan Mücke puts Barwell Motorsport-Aston Martin on last-gasp pole position for 24H BARCELONA. As the track dried out in the final minutes of the two-hour qualifying session, German Stefan Mücke put the Barwell-Motorsport Aston Martin (#1) he is sharing with Bruno Senna, Richard Abra and Mark Poole on pole position for the 24H BARCELONA . With his fastest time of 1:50.646 minutes, Mücke not only was exactly four tenths of a second faster than last year’s pole-winning time, but he also beat the time of 1:51.669, set by Italian Gianluca de Lorenzi (#3, De Lorenzi Racing-Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3, De Lorenzi/Breukers/Nearn/de Heus), who had been on top of the time sheets for most of qualifying. The Italian team’s sportscar with the gullwing doors will now start from second place on the grid. The Stadler Motorsport-Porsche (#7, Matter/Amstütz/Siedler/Baumann) was classified third with a lap time of 1:53.873 minutes achieved by Austrian driver Dominik Baumann, the reigning FIA GT3 European drivers’ champion.
Gianluca de Lorenzi moved up into first place quite early in the session and his time appeared likely to remain unbeaten after a downpour at the end of the first half hour. In the second hour, rain had stopped, but the track remained damp and there were no significant improvements. However, Stefan Mücke still turned things upside down just before the chequered flag came out. “With 20 minutes remaining, I walked up to the final corner to see what conditions were like. It still looked very slippery, but we decided to give it another go,” Mücke reported afterwards. “When I went out, I was quite surprised to discover how much grip I actually had. With my first lap, I already came close to first place and the next lap did it. As we all know, the starting grid position for an endurance race doesn’t mean a lot, but it is still a nice feeling both for myself and for the team.”
With the Barwell-Aston Martin, the De Lorenzi-Mercedes, the Stadler-Porsche and the Car Collection Motorsport-Mercedes (#2, Schmidt/Mattschull/Schmersal/Edelhoff/ Kirchhoff) locking out the first two rows on the grid and the top four places in the A6 category, the best-placed car from the SP2-class is the Clickvers.de-Porsche 997 GT3 (#12, Destrée/Jodexnis/Pauels/Rink/Chrzanowski) in fifth place overall. The best-placed SP3-car is the Red Camel Racing-Audi R8 (#23, Kassulke/Paladino/Andreasi/Ciró), while the fastest Porsche 997 Cup car in qualifying was the Motorsport Services entry (#9, Niall/Niall/Harvey/Pilatti). The fastest A5 car is the #34 Top Autoteile Racing-BMW E46 WTCC (Schelp/Schwager/Molenaar/Krumbach). A4 class honours went to the German Hofor-Kueperracing-BMW E46 M Coupé (#35, Kuepper/Kroll/Kroll/Feller).
One of the Monlau Competición team’s pair of SEAT Leon Supercopa cars (#40, Font/Carbonell/Pérez-Alcart/Smet) came out on top in A3T. The fastest A2 entry was the Besaplast Racing-Mini (#46, Kovac/Lestrup/Tekaat/Littig). Saxon Motorsport put its BMW 135D GTR (#56, Barrow/Corbett/Barrow) on pole in the D2 diesel class, while Dutch team, MDM Motorsport (#63, De Laat/De Prenter/Boorsma/Bus) ended up fastest with their BMW 320D in class D1.
The 24-hour race starts tomorrow, Saturday, 7 September, at 12.00 hrs. Latest information, live-timing, photos and video footage can be found at live.24hseries.com. There will also be regular updates on Twitter (@24HSERIES, hashtag #24HBCN) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/24hseries). A highlights show of the 24H BARCELONA will be broadcast on Motors TV on October 6 at 21.40 hrs CET.
