Barwell Motorsport becomes sixth different pole sitter of the season at the #Hankook 24H BARCELONA
The Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo (#77, Adrian Amstutz / Leonid Machitski / Patrick Kujala / Dennis Lind) has taken pole position for the 2019 Hankook 24H BARCELONA. Dennis Lind lapped the 4.655km Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in 1m 46.577s to secure not only the team’s first pole position in the 24H SERIES powered by Hankook this season, but also the first overall top spot for a Lamborghini Huracán GT3 since the season-opening Hankook 24H DUBAI.
The British squad, which almost missed qualifying altogether, also becomes the sixth different outright pole sitter in as many races in this year’s 24H SERIES, eve in spite of a flurry of hot laps in the closing moments of the session.
“That was a real nail-biter!” explained team manager Mark Lemmer to radiolemans.com’s Andrew Marriott. “We were in a bit of trouble this morning. We had some major fuel system issues, which is often the case when you move around different championships. We also had to schedule in a gearbox and a clutch change, so the guys at Barwell Motorsport have done an incredible job!”
A very tense qualifying session finally ended with the Herberth Motorsport Porsche 991 GT3 R (#93, Edward Lewis Brauner / Stefan Aust / Klaus Bachler / Vincent Kolb / Zeljko Drmic) qualifying 2nd overall, just 0.162s shy of toppling Barwell Motorsport. Behind the A6-Am pole sitter was the GPX Racing Porsche 991 GT3 R (#24, Jean-Pierre Valentini / Benjamin Goethe / Stuart Hall / Jordan Grogor / Nicky Pastorelli), which sneaked onto the second row in the dying seconds of the session, and the Car Collection Motorsport Audi R8 LMS Evo (#34, Johannes Dr. Kirchhoff / Gustav Edelhoff / Elmar Grimm / Ingo Vogler / Max Edelhoff). So fraught was the action that barely one-tenth of a second covered the trio.
Although among the initial contenders for pole position, the Bohemia Energy racing with Scuderia Praha Ferrari 488 GT3 (#11, Jiří Písařík / Josef Kral / Matteo Malucelli) will start 5th overall as the third fastest A6-Pro qualifier. The 24H SERIES Europe standings leader is gunning for both its fifth win of the 2019 season and its first overall 24H SERIES championship.
Despite a hefty crash during private testing on Thursday, the Hofor Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 (#10, Michael Kroll / Alexander Prinz / Kenneth Heyer / Christiaan Frankenhout / Wim Spinoy) rounds out the A6-Am top three in 6th place.
The Vortex V8 Vortex 1.0 (#701, Stephane Cottrell / Philippe Gruau / Nicolas Nobs / Francesc Gutierrez Agüi) will start from pole position in the SPX class, and features Hankook 24H BARCELONA legend Francesc Gutierrez Agüi on the driver line-up. Just behind, both in-class and on the road, will be the True Racing KTM GTX (#216, Johannes Stuck / Ferdinand Stuck / Laura Kraihamer / Sehdi Sarmini) and the Cor Euser Racing MARC II V8 (#717, Cor Euser / Einar Thorsen / Jim Briody / Ricky Coomber / Ryan McLeod).
Fellow ‘Special Prototype’ entrant Nordschleife Racing (#526, Guillaume Roman / Mathieu Sentis / Sebastien Dussolliet / Sebastien Poisson) will start its first race in the bespoke SP4 class with the brand new Ligier JS2 R, albeit from 26th on the grid.
Just over three-tenths of a second separated the 991-class pole sitting Team Webheads Porsche 991-I Cup (#902, Andreas Riedl / Joachim Bölting / JM Littman / Tom Dillmann) from Porsche Lorient Racing (#911, Jean-François Demorge / Mathieu Pontais / Pascal Gibon / Frédéric Ancel), the latter of which goes into the European season finale as the 991-class standings leader. The Raceunion by MRS GT-Racing Porsche 991-II Cup (#980, Alex Autumn / Andreas Gülden / Raulino Kreis Jr / Hendrik Von Dannwitz / Jukka Honkavuori) completes the 991 top three.
Already a two-time class winner this year, the Hofor Racing by Bonk Motorsport BMW M4 GT4 (#50, Martin Kroll / Michael Fischer / Michael Schrey / Thomas Jäger / Michael Bonk) takes GT4-class pole position ahead of the PROsport Performance Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 (#1, Rodrigue Gillion / Nico Verdonck / Jon Aizpurua / Nicholas Silva), the team’s closest rival in the GT4-class 24H SERIES Europe rankings. The Sorg Rennsport BMW M4 GT4 meanwhile (#451, Olaf Meyer / Björn Simon / Simon Tibbett / Stephan Epp / Torsten Kratz) starts 3rd in-class.
