SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS (19 April, 2024) – Car Collection Motorsport has locked out the overall front row for tomorrow’s Hankook 12H SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS after a tense fight, in wet-dry conditions, with Antigua’s Haas RT. 

The Haas RT Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II (#1, Gregory Servais / Xavier Knauf / Tim Müller), which took pole for last year’s event, ended a sodden Q1 with a 1.7-second advantage over both Car Collection Motorsport Porsches, despite the Antiguan team struggling at first to fire the Audi into life. The gap would close considerably however as the rain stopped and the 7.004km Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps began to dry. By the end of Q3, Haas RT had been shuffled back to the second row after a flurry of fast laps from Car Collection’s #12 Porsche 992 GT3 R (‘Hash’ / Alex Fontana / Ivan Jacoma / Yannick Mettler) and its sister #80 entry (Antares Au / Jonathan Hui / Kevin Tse). The former, which posted an average best of 2m 41.433s across all three sessions, will lead the latter away at the start of tomorrow’s race. 

This marks Car Collection Motorsport’s first overall pole in the 24H SERIES since the Hankook 12H HOCKENHEIMRING in 2022. 

“We always have ‘special conditions’ here!” Alex Fontana explained to radiolemans.com’s Diana Binks. “As the rain stopped, we knew the track was progressing and improving in terms of speed, so getting the pressures right for the tyres was key: you want to get the fastest laptime at the end without overcooking your tyres. We were struggling a bit [in Free Practice], but I think we put everything together in qualifying.”

When asked about his teammates’ laptimes, Alex continued: “Ivan [Jacoma] is a machine in the wet, I have to say! He has a lot of experience at the Nordschleife, so for him, these are good conditions. Yannick [Mettler] was almost new to the car: today, he couldn’t run very much [in Free Practice], and so his session was a bit of a discovery. But overall, we’re all happy about the car and we think we’ve found a good setup.” 

Much like the overall top three, quick times in the ever-drying conditions meant the battle for 4th, 5th and 6th on the grid was equally as hard-fought. 

ARC Bratislava (#44, Miro Konopka / Zdeno Mikulasko / Anton Kiaba / Mateo Llarena) was the first team to dip below the 2m 40s mark during qualifying. The Slovakian team’s 2m 39.724s in Q2 proved crucial to launching the Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO up to 4th overall on the grid, behind Haas RT. Likewise, a 2m 38.682s by Kessel Racing (#5, Nicolò Rosi / Andrew Gilbert / Fran Rueda / Fons Scheltema) in the closing stages of Q3, launched the Ferrari 296 GT3 from 11th on the grid to 6th with less than three minutes left on the clock. 

Similarly, and after a conservative start to qualifying, Herberth Motorsport (#91, Ralf Bohn / Scott Noble / Jason Hart) posted the fourth fastest time of Q3 to vault to 5th on the overall grid, one place higher than the Bavarian team managed on the official debut for its Porsche 992 GT3 R last year.

2017 Overall GT Teams’ ‘Europe’ champion Hofor Racing (#11, Michael Kroll / Chantal Prinz / Alexander Prinz / Maximilian Partl / Kenneth Heyer), 2009 24H DUBAI winner Land-Motorsport (#34, Dr. Johannes Kirchhoff / Tim Vogler / Wiggo Dalmo / Max Edelhoff) and last year’s Hankook 12H SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS winner Saintéloc Junior Team (#18, Michael Doppelmayr / Pierre Kaffer / Elia Erhart / Ernst Inderbitzin) were the final GT3 teams inside the overall top 10, and will start 8th, 9th and 10th respectively. Pierre Kaffer set the overall fastest lap of qualifying – a 2m 37.186s – in Q3, besting E2P Racing’s Àlvaro Parente by just 0.031s. 

Notably, despite the tricky conditions, no Code 60s or extended yellow flag periods were required during qualifying. 

Red Ant Racing (#903, Ayrton Redant / Yannick Redant / Julius Adomavičius), a two-time class winner at the Hankook 12H SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, has secured ‘992’ pole ahead of long-time class rival Red Camel-Jordans.nl (#909, Ivo Breukers / Luc Breukers / Rik Breukers / Fabian Danz). In an impressive showing, the Belgian team’s Porsche was among the quickest cars overall during a very wet Q1, ending the first session with the fourth quickest time outright. Such was the Porsche 992 GT3 Cup’s pace at Spa, Red Ant Racing will start 7th overall on the grid!

In a similarly rapid effort, series newcomer Hans Weijs Motorsport (#972, Ralph Poppelaars / Mark van Eldik / Edwin Schilt / Paul Meijer) took 992-Am pole ahead of Bas Koeten Racing (#925, Bob Herber / Marcel Van Berlo) and will start 3rd overall in 992. 

Aptly, the second Red Ant Racing Porsche 992 GT3 Cup (#904, Brent Verheyen / Peter Guelinckx / Michiel Haverans) rounds out the overall top five on the 992 grid. 

Despite suffering a heavy shunt during Free Practice, GDL Racing (#969, Mark Smith / Dallas Carroll / Matt Kehoe) completed repairs in time for qualifying, and will start 15th overall in 992 – 10th in 992-Am – one place behind reigning 992 Teams’ champion RPM Racing (#907, Tracy Krohn / Niclas Jönsson / Philip Hamprecht). 

Vortex V8 (#702, Arnaud Gomez / Olivier Gomez  / Lucas Sugliano) continued its strong qualifying form with the ‘2.0’ at Spa, the brand-new lightweight sports car securing its fourth consecutive GTX pole since its debut. In an impressive effort, Vortex V8 will start 14th on the overall grid ahead of 992-Am polesitter Hans Weijs Motorsport.

Series newcomer Team CMR (#795, Lawrence Tomlinson / Freddie Tomlinson / Michael Simpson) banked 2nd on the GTX grid on the first European endurance race start for Ginetta’s new G56 Cup. The second Vortex 2.0 meanwhile (#701, Lionel Amrouche / Philippe Bonnel / Gilles Courtois) will line up 3rd in-class.

The returning ALFAB Racing (#400, Erik Behrens / Daniel Roos) will start tomorrow’s race from GT4 pole after a scintillating fight with Simpson Motorsport (#438, Charlie Robertson / Ravi Ramyead / Vasily Vladykin). On its 24H SERIES debut, the Swedish team’s McLaren Artura GT4 leapfrogged the British team’s BMW M4 GT4 in the closing stages of qualifying, and the pair were ultimately split by less than half a second. Just two-tenths adrift, Lionspeed GP (#424, José Garcia / Daniel Miller / Patrick Kolb / Dennis Bohn) will start 3rd in-class with its Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport.

Further back, the CWS Engineering Ginetta G55 (#178, Colin White / Daniel Morris) ended an understandably conservative TCE qualifying session with class pole. The British team, a class winner at the event in 2018, will lead the SRS Team Sorg Rennsport Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 CS (#127, Henning Eschweiler / Heinz Jürgen Kroner / Benito Tagle / Christoph Krombach) and the Porsche Cayman GTS of Belgian debutant HY Racing (#169, Brice Pineau / Jacques Derenne / Bruno Barbaro / ‘Brody’) away from tomorrow’s grid. 

The green flag for the sixth edition of the Hankook 12H SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS is set to drop at 12.50 hrs, local time, tomorrow afternoon, Saturday 20 April. After the opening five hours have been completed, and following the event’s traditional overnight intervention, the final seven hours will be completed between 10.50 hrs and 17.50 hrs on Sunday 21 April. 

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