PORTIMAO (10 May, 2024) – The Saintéloc Junior Team has secured pole position for the 2024 Hankook 24H PORTIMAO by just over a tenth of second from Herberth Motorsport following an intermittent qualifying session at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve.

Adrift by just three-tenths of a second after the first of three 15-minute qualifying sessions held this afternoon, the Saintéloc Junior Team Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II (#18, Michael Doppelmayr / Pierre Kaffer / Elia Erhart / Swen Herberger / Philippe Chatelet) had moved into provisional pole – albeit by a microscopic 0.010s – heading into Q3. In the end, a strong run from team PRO Pierre Kaffer was enough for the French team to secure pole with an average best of 1m 44.921s. 

Saintéloc would however be run closer than the team expected by the first of two Herberth Motorsport Porsche 992 GT3 Rs competing at Portimão this weekend (#91, Scott Noble / Ralf Bohn / Jason Hart / Ian Loggie). Indeed, a late charge by Scott Noble in the closing moments propelled the #91 Porsche from 4th to 2nd on the grid, barely a tenth behind. 

“You never can be very comfortable. As you can see, in that last lap from Herberth [Motorsport], the #91 was pretty close to us!” Pierre Kaffer explained post-qualifying to radiolemans.com’s Diana Binks. “It was a really entertaining qualifying, especially during Q2. For Elia [Erhart], it was really difficult to get a time in, but my run was quite clean.”

When asked about the stronger-than-expected winds that battered the track during qualifying, Pierre admitted this had been a concern for most of the teams on-track.  

“I was just a bit surprised about the wind change, especially at turn one and at the hairpin. As you have seen, most of the cars went straight on, or were not on the ideal line. So that was quite a surprise! 

“But in the end, we are happy and also proud to be back at the front tomorrow. [The Autódromo] suits our car and we are really looking forward to the 24-hour race. Thanks to all the Saintéloc crew, all my teammates, and all of our partners who made it possible to race this beautiful Audi R8.”

Ironically, while Saintéloc Junior Team becomes the sixth different team – across six editions! – to qualify on overall pole for the Hankook 24H PORTIMAO, Kaffer, Doppelmayr, Erhart and Herberger become the first two-time polesitters at the event, the quartet having also qualified on pole with Phoenix Racing in 2022.  

Five-time Bathurst 1000 winner Garth Tander, making his 24H SERIES powered by Hankook debut this weekend, set the fastest overall lap of any session – a 1m 44.161s – aboard the Grove Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO (#10, Stephen Grove / Brenton Grove / Matthew Payne / Garth Tander). This helped the Australian team bank 3rd on the grid ahead of the second Herberth Motorsport Porsche 992 GT3 R (#92, Max Moritz / Vincent Kolb / Felix Neuhofer / Robert Renauer / Ralf Bohn).

The Hofor Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 (#11, Michael Kroll / Chantal Prinz / Alexander Prinz / Maximilian Partl / Kenneth Heyer) ended Q1 on provisional pole, and, having finished just one-hundredth of a second shy of the top spot in Q2, was well in the hunt for pole heading into Q3. Sadly, a fuel pump issue brought Maximilian Partl’s run to a premature end, and consequently drops the Swiss team to 5th on the grid.  

Former Bathurst 12 Hours winner Álvaro Parente meanwhile will start his home endurance race from 6th on the grid aboard the E2P Racing Porsche 991.2 GT3 R (#90, Pablo Burguera / Antonio Sainero / Álvaro Parente).

Strong winds at Portimão meant qualifying was interrupted by three separate red flags, the last of which was flown with just seconds remaining to recover the Vortex V8 Vortex 2.0 (#701, Lionel Amrouche / Philippe Bonnel / Gilles Courtois / Lucas Sugliano) from the turn four barriers. The lightweight sports cars, the eighth overall fastest qualifier, is the sole GTX entrant this weekend at Portimão, and is expected to take tomorrow’s race start. 

Despite giving best to 992 standings leader Red Ant Racing in Q1, Red Camel-Jordans.nl (#909, Ivo Breukers / Luc Breukers / Rik Breukers / Fabian Danz) bounced back to secure class pole in 992, and an impressive 7th overall on the grid. The Red Ant Racing Porsche 992 GT3 Cup (#903, Ayrton Redant / Yannick Redant / Kobe de Breucker / Lucas Van Eijndhoven) retained 2nd in-class and 9th on the overall grid, albeit just 0.025s clear of HRT Performance (#967, Nicolas Stürzinger / Amedeo Pampanini / Linus Diener / Stefano Monaco / Kim André Hauschild). The latter rounds out the overall top 10. 

A scintillating final run in Q3 saw reigning 992 Teams’ champion RPM Racing (#907, Tracy Krohn / Niclas Jönsson / Philip Hamprecht / Patrick Huisman) leapfrog the second Red Ant Racing Porsche (#904, Brent Verheyen / Peter Guelinckx / Michiel Haverans / Kris Cools) and Holmgaard Motorsport (#902, Magnus Holmgaard / Martin Vedel Mortensen / Jonas Holmgaard / Stéphane Perrin), and move up to 4th on the 992 grid. The German team will also start tomorrow’s 24-hour race from 992-Am pole.

Further back, the Orchid Racing Team endured a tough session. The Swiss team’s #917 Porsche 992 GT3 Cup (Alexandre Mottet / Antonio Garzon / Jeremy Brodard / Daniel Gillioz) ended qualifying early, like Vortex V8, against the turn four barriers. Antonio Garzon fortunately emerged unscathed from the shunt, and the Swiss team hopes the repaired Porsche 992 GT3 Cup can take tomorrow’s race start from the back row. 

The sister #963 Porsche meanwhile (Laurent Misbach / Loic Villiger / Frank Villiger / Antoine Leclerc), runner-up in-class earlier this year in Mugello, qualified a provisional 4th in 992 and 11th overall, but has been docked 10 places on the grid after the team mistakenly changed its tyres between sessions.  

Struck by gearbox problems in Q1, MRS GT Racing (#988, Marco Müller / Shaun Thong / Will Langhorne / Terence Tse / Ricardo Costa) missed Q2 and Q3 altogether. The German team is planning to take tomorrow’s race start following overnight repairs. 

The Mercedes-AMG GT4 of class standings leader Buggyra ZM Racing (#416, Aliyyah Koloc / David Vršecký / Adam Lacko / Jaroslav Janis) got the ball rolling with provisional GT pole in Q1, but ultimately dropped back to 2nd in-class behind Ginetta G56 GT4 of Q2 polesitter GSR Motorsport (#405, Ernesta Globytė / Rokas Kvedaras / Mindaugas Liatukas / Egidijus Gelūnas / Aras Kvedaras).

The Lionspeed GP Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport (#424, José Garcia / Patric Niederhauser / Patrick Kolb / Dennis Bohn) was also in the hunt for GT4 pole, but has since been dropped to the back of the field with a five-place grid penalty.  

Series returnee PR-V (#125, Christian Gloz / Hervé Houdré / Alain Remi / Flavien Remi) will start from TCE pole with its Peugeot 308 Racing Cup, although the French team has been docked one-place on the grid after exceeding the pitlane speed limit during Q2.

The green flag for the sixth edition of the Hankook 24H PORTIMAO is set to drop at 12.00 hrs, local time, tomorrow afternoon, Saturday 11 May. The race thereafter will be run uninterrupted until the chequered flag is unfurled at 12.00 hrs on Sunday 12 May. The action will be live with commentary from radiolemans.com on the official 24H SERIES YouTube channel. Regular updates will also be published on X (@24HSeries), Facebook (24H Series) and Instagram (24H Series). Further information can be found HERE