The Hofor-Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 (#1, Michael Kroll / Chantal Kroll / Roland Eggimann / Kenneth Heyer / Christiaan Frankenhout) has taken an astonishing pole position for the first ever Hankook 12H NAVARRA. Christiaan Frankenhout set the three fastest laps of the session, but lapped the 3.933 km Circuito de Navarra in 1m 39.161s to take the first A6-Am outright pole position of the 2018 24H SERIES powered by Hankook.
In a very exciting qualifying session in which the top eight cars were split by just nine-tenths of a second, the reigning A6 and GT champions were less than half a second faster than the IDEC SPORT RACING Mercedes-AMG GT3 (#17, Patrice Lafargue / Paul Lafargue / Dimitri Enjalbert), which set its first A6-Pro class pole position of the season. The Bohemia Energy racing with Scuderia Praha Ferrari 488 GT3 (#11, Jiří Písařík / Josef Kral / Matteo Malucelli meanwhile was just 0.03s further back to round out the overall top three in qualifying.
Starting 4th as the second fastest A6-Am qualifier will be the Swiss Team Mercedes-AMG GT3 (#15, Roberto Pampanini / Christoph Lenz / Mauro Calamia) in a remarkable series debut for the team. Just behind them on the grid will be the Forch Racing Porsche 991 GT3 R (#29, Zeljko Drmic / Patrick Eisemann / Robert Lukas), the third fastest A6-Pro runner. The Car Collection Motorsport Audi R8 LMS (#33, Ali Çapan / Dirg Parhofer / Isaac Tutumlu Lopez / Peter Schmidt) finished a difficult qualifying session as the 3rd fastest A6-Am qualifier, and will thus start 7th overall just 0.788s behind the Hofor-Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 (#1, Michael Kroll / Chantal Kroll / Roland Eggimann / Kenneth Heyer / Christiaan Frankenhout), the reigning 24H SERIES Champions of the Continents.
The Vortex V8 Vortex 1.0 (#204, Lionel Amrouche / Philippe Gruau / Philippe Valenza) meanwhile took a surprise pole position in the SPX class on its series return, just ahead of the True-Racing KTM X-BOW (#116, Johannes Stuck / Ferdinand Stuck / Reinhard Kofler / Klaus Angerhofer) and the sister #117 entry (TAKIS / Hubert Trunkenpolz / Gerald Kiska / Klaus Angerhofer / Reinhard Kofler). The MARC Focus V8 of reigning SP2 class champions VDS Racing Adventures (#58, Raphaël van der Straten / José Close) completes the class.
In a very tight battle for 991 class honours, the EBIMOTORS Porsche 991-I Cup (#73, Lino Curti / Carlo Curti / Marco Frezza) claimed the top spot on its series return ahead of the IDEC SPORT RACING Porsche 991-I Cup (#75, David Abramczyk / Romain Vozniak / Paul Lafargue) and the Porsche Lorient Racing Porsche 991-I Cup (#65, Jean-François Demorge / Alain Demorge / Gilles Blasco / Frédéric Ancel). The Endurance Team Romania Ginetta G55 GT4 (#446, Fabrizio Broggi / Sergiu Nicolae) meanwhile was fastest in the GT4 class on its series return, just ahead of QSR Racingschool (#254, Mario Timmers / Bert Redant / Michiel Verhaeren) and the team’s brand new Mercedes-AMG GT4.
The first-ever Hankook 12H NAVARRA will get underway this afternoon at 17.15 hrs. local time. After three hours, and a brief break during the night, the race will continue tomorrow at 11.30 hrs. local time until the chequered flag is flown at 20.30 hrs. The race can be followed live with timing and streaming on the series’ website.
Source. Creventic/Photo. Petr Frýba
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