Peter Kox and Stefan Rosina will start from pole position for today’s qualifying race at Zolder after topping the Superpole times during this morning’s all-important session.
Kox scorched around the Belgian circuit, which celebrates its 50th birthday this year, to take a popular pole position for the Lamborghini Blancpain Reiter team with a scintillating best lap of 1m29.398s lap.
Joining the Lamborghini on the front row will be the McLaren MP4-12C of 9-times World Rally champion Sebastien Loeb and his team mate Alvaro Parente. The Portuguese driver got within 0.3 seconds of the pole sitting Lamborghini, but was content with starting on the front row of the grid for this afternoon’s Qualifying Race.
Forming the second row of the grid will be the leading PRO-AM Cup class entry of Sergei Afanasiev and Andreas Simonsen. Afanasiev produced a committed lap to take the class pole and the Russian was also delighted to have set the third fastest time overall with a scorching 1m29.740s lap during his two-lap Superpole allocation in the HTP Gravity Charouz Mercedes SLS AMG GT3.
Gentlemen’s Trophy class new-boys Duda Rosa and Paolo Bonifacio were fastest with their Seyffarth Motorsport entered Mercedes SLS AMG GT3. The Brazilian pair was initially despondent after they were left stranded on the track after the first qualifying session. However Rosa’s time of 1m33.031 was good enough to take pole in class and the team, will have their car ready for this afternoon’s race.
The Qualifying Race begins this afternoon at 14.15cet. You can follow the action live with streaming and timing here – http://www.fiagtseries.com/pages/live
QUOTES
Peter Kox, #24 Lamborghini Blancpain Reiter, Lamborghini Gallardo GT3 FL II
“It was a good job by all the team, in qualifying. We are in great shape and Stefan did a nice job with his lap in Q2. My Superpole laps were smooth and we have found a good mechanical balance and a lot of work over the last few weeks. I think it will be busy in the race this afternoon but for sure we are starting in the best place to form a strong result.”
Sergei Afanasiev, #2 HTP Gravity Charouz Mercedes SLS AMG GT3
“We are very happy with all performances so far this weekend. To be right on the pace is very satisfying. The car felt great under me and we were able to carry a lot of good momentum through the critical corners here at Zolder. This is a good basis for us and we are as confident as we can be to perform just as well, if not better, in the races. I also want to thank SRO for organising such a nice championship and for a good BOP for the cars.
Duda Rosa, #29 Seyffarth Mercedes SLS AMG GT3
“Everything is new to us so we are delighted with the pole position in class. But we know the car because we won the championship last year with a Mercedes. I am very happy with the car and the team, the circuit is very nice, but now we will see what happens during the race.”
Source : FIA GT Series