By Tarek Ramchani
Perfect results for the Audi brand in the Spa 24 Hours night qualifying sessions. A 1-2 for the new Audi R8 LMS cars against world class rivals. A total of four Audi cars will compete in the special Super Pole session on Friday afternoon.
The #2 Audi R8 LMS from Audi Sport Team WRT was the fastest car overall. Frank Stippler, Nico Müller and Stephane Ortelli set the best time in the session, a 2:18.608.
Second place went to the #6 Audi R8 LMS from Audi Sport Team Phoenix. The car is driven by Marcel Fässler, Andre Lotterer and Mike Rockenfeller. They set a best time of 2:18.89 and were only 0.286 behind #2 WRT’s time.
Best of the “old” Audi R8 LMS ultras was the #3 car from Belgian Audi Club Team WRT. The car in the hands of Stephane Richelmi, Jean-Karl Vernay and Robin Frijns was twelfth fastest.
Sainteloc Racing performed well too, their #35 Audi R8 LMS ultra was fifteenth fastest with drivers Gregory Guilvert, Edward Sandström and Marc Basseng. While the #75 Audi R8 LMS ultra from ISR Racing was seventeenth with Filip Salaquarda, Marco Bonanomi and Frederic Vervisch.
Unlucky night qualifying session for the two remaining new Audi R8 LMS cars. The #5 from Audi Sport Team Phoenix was twenty-third with drivers Christian Mamerow, Christopher Mies and Nicki Thiim. The #1 car from Audi Sport Team WRT driven by 2014 winners Rene Rast, Laurens Vanthoor and Markus Winkelhock was twenty-eighth.
The #4 Audi R8 LMS ultra (Belgian Audi Club Team WRT) was fourty-sixth. The #24 Audi R8 LMS ultra (Team Parker Racing) was fourty-eighth. The #36 Audi R8 LMS ultra (Sainteloc Racing) was fifty-seventh.
The fastest 20 cars overall will be back on track tomorrow for the special Super Pole qualifying session. All of the four new Audi R8 LMS cars will take part in the session but unfortunately not a single Audi R8 LMS ultra.
Photo credit: Jean-Baptiste Lassaux