Super Pole

ROW 1 at 4:30pm today will be shared between

- #88 Mercedes-AMG GT3 driven by Raffaele Marciello, Daniel Juncadella and Jules Gounon from Mercedes-AMG Team Akka ASP

- #63 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo from Orange 1 FFF Racing Team with Mirko Bortolotti, Marco Mapelli and Andrea Caldarelli on the wheel.

Raffaele Marciello did snatch pole during Super Pole session being the only one to fly a lap under the 2’18”. That was 0.303” faster than Mirko Bortolotti.

This is the third straight pole position at the 24 Hours of Spa for Mercedes-AMG and the second consecutive for Marciello.

ROW 2

#4 Mercedes-AMG GT3 driven by Marco Engel, Luca Stolz and Vincent Abril from Mercedes-AMG Team HRT.

#14 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo from Emil Frey Racing with Alex Fontana, Rolf Ineichen and Ricardo Feller on the wheel.

#4 and #14 benefit from a quarter second penalty to Nicki Thiim (third best time) driving #95 Aston Martin Vantage for leaving his pit box too late.

Note also that Ricardo Feller with #14 Lamborghini beat his Pro-category Emil Frey Racing teammates Jack Aitken #114 and Albert Costa #163.

ROW 3

#34 BMWM6 GT3 driven by Sheldon van der Linde, David Pittard and Marco Wittmann from Walkenhorst Motorsport.

#38 Mclaren 720S GT3 from JOTA with Rob Bell, Oliver Wilkinson and Ben Barnicoat on the wheel.

Both benefit from a quarter second penalty to Nicki Thiim driving #95 Aston martin Vantage for leaving his pit box too late.

ROW 4

#66 Audi R8 LMS GT3 from Audi Sport Team Attempto Racing with Mattia Drudi, Dennis Marschall and Christopher Mies on the wheel.

#95 Aston martin Vantage AMR GT3 driven by Nicki Thiim, Ross Gunn and Marco Soensen from Garage 59.

Nicki Thiim driving #95 Aston martin Vantage did in fact realize the third best performance but was handed a quarter-second penalty for leaving his pit box too late. #66 thereby benefit from this penalty.

ROW 5

#22 Porsche 911 GT3-R from GPX Martini Racing with Porsche Works drivers Matt Campbell, Earl Bamber and Matthieu Jaminet on the wheel.

#89 Mercedes-AMG GT3 driven by Lucas Auer, Timur Boguslavskiy and Felipe Fraga from Mercedes-AMG Team AKKA ASP

Combined Qualifying

The qualification process of the 24 Hours of Spa started Thursday with 3 rounds (plus one for the PRO-AM, AM and Silver cup) to define the position on the grid from P21 to P58.

Friday, the top 20 run the Super Pole session to define the position on the grid for the Saturday and Sunday race.

Four Silver Cup cars (#107 CMR Bentley, #14 Emil Frey Racing Lamborghini, #87 AKKA ASP Mercedes-AMG and #57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG) and 16 PRO-AM will run into Super Pole this evening. Therefore the following top 3 must be considered as provisional.

The 3 drivers of the #88 Mercedes-AMG Team AKKA ASP GT3 have been consistent in gaining the combined best time: Raffaele Marciello did top Q2, Daniel Juncadella repeated Marciello's result by leading Q3 and Jules Gounon completed the task by posting the third-fastest lap in Q4.

Chris Mies, Mattia Drudi and Dennis Marschall are completing the top 3 with their #66 Audi Sport Team Attempto Audi R8 LMS GT3

Nicki Thiim did the second best time in Q2 and his team mates Ross Gunn and Marco Sorensen were fast enough to secure P2 for the #95 Garage 59 Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3.

Am Cup pole was secured by the #166 Hägeli by T2 Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R driven by Pieder Decurtins, Manuel Lauck, Dennis Busch and Marc Basseng.

Alexander West, Chris Goodwin, Charlie Eastwood and Marvin Kirchhöfer with their #188 Garage 59 Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 won Pro-Am pole.

Pre-Qualifying Top 3

#32 Audi Sport team WRT - W Racing Team scored again the best performance during pre-qualifying this afternoon but this time with Dries Vanthoor Racing at the wheel. Marvin Kirchhöfer did the 2nd best time with #188 Garage 59 Aston Martin Vantage. The #34 Walkenhorst Motorsport BMW M6 GT3 achieved the 3rd best performance.

5 different manufacturers are in the top 6 with 2 Porsche at P4 & 5 and 1 Mercedes at P6. It looks promising for the qualifying sessions this evening.

Free Practice Top 3

Kelvin van der Linde was at the wheel of the #32 Audi Sport Team WRT and achieved the best performance during this morning's free practice. The #22 GPX Racing Porsche driven by Matt Campbell was second-fastest. Raffaele Marciello with #88 Mercedes-AMG Team AKKA is third overall.

NEWS J-2

📷  24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps test days 22-23 June 2021

Mercedes AMG is celebrating its 50 years ago class victory and is second overall by Hans Heyer and Clemens Shickentanz with the Mercedes-Benz 300 SEL 6.8 AMG. Mercedes-AMG has entered one car each of the #88 AKKA ASP and #4 HRT teams with extended works support.

Busy day today at Francorchamps, with 58 cars taking part in the Practice, Pre-Qualifying, Night Practice and Qualifying of the TotalEnergies 24 Hours of Spa. The qualifying sets grid positions 21 through 58. Pole and 10 first-row ranking will be established tomorrow evening with the Super Pole session.

NEWS J-3

Pieder Decurtins with #166 Hägeli by T2 Racing Porsche 911 GT3-R was the fastest during the three hours Bronze Test. Rob Collard at the wheel of the #69 RAM Racing Mercedes-AMG was second, and Alex West with the #188 Garage 59 Aston Martin was third.

Note that the #166 Porsche is one of the two cars running for the AM Cup. The second AM team being the #23 Huber Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3-R ended 6th of the Bronze test.

NEWS J-4

Among the 4 German manufacturers (Audi, BMW, Mercedes and Porsche) present at Spa, BMW counts the smaller number of cars in the entry list: 3 versus, 9 Audi, 13, Mercedes, 10 Porsche. Walkenhorst Motorsport has 2 entries with

- #34 driven by Sheldon van der Linde, Marco Wittmann and David Pittard

- #35 driven by Timo Glock, Martin Tomczyk and Thomas Neubauer.

During the 2 days of testing in June, they achieved the best performance (the M4 GT3 was faster but not homologated) which makes them serious contenders for victory.

BMW counts 24 victories at the 24h of Spa so far. The first one was in 1965, with Pascal Ickx and Gerard Langlois in a BMW 180Ti. The Ickx family clinched a second victory with BMW one year later, with well-known Jacky and Hubert Hahne in a BMW 2000Ti.

Boutsen Ginion aligns #10 BMW M6 GT3 for Yann Zimmer, Karim Ojjeh, Jens Liebhauser and Jens Klingmann in the Pro-Am Cup.

NEWS J-5

📷  24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps test days 22-23 June 2021

New factory driver lineup for #163 EmilFrey Racing’s Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo: Franck Perera replaces Norbert Siedler, who is not yet fully recovered from an accident during the official test days in late June. Giacomo Altoé and Albert Costa are his codrivers.

Jack Aitken, Konsta Lappalainen and Arthur Rougier will team up in the #114. Ricardo Feller, Rolf Ineichen and Alex Fontana are sharing the #14.

NEWS J-6

Great news for Porsche Works drivers Frederic Makowiecki and Michael Christensen , as Schnabl Engineering will take over Porsche 911GT3 R #3 entry withdrawn by Frikadelli Racing as we announced 4 days ago. They will be joined by Dennis Olsen, who was supposed to share #3 with Mako and Pilet. Christensen was on Frikadelli’s #13 entry. Schnabl is running in the Nurburgring Endurance Series as Falken Motorsport.

The #3 entry driven by Dennis Olsen, Frederic Makowiecki and Michael Christensen will have a black and green livery with the slogan “In memory of the victims of the flood disaster”.

NEWS J-10

Frikadelli Racing Team will not race at the 2021 24 Hours of Spa. The catastrophic flooding in Germany and Belgium last week impacted several members and friends of the team. Together with Porsche, Frikadelli decided to withdraw from next week's race.

A couple of favorite lineups including Porsche Works drivers will therefore not be present at Spa:

- #3 Porsche with Dennis Olsen, Frederik Makowiecki and Patrick Pilet

- #13 Porsche with Thomas Preining, Michael Christensen and Julien Andlauer

GT 24 Hours of SPA 2021 pre-race news