•    Supreme performance by Optimum Motorsport McLaren 720S in Spa qualifying
•    Salman Owega, Freddie Tomlinson, Harry George celebrate jubilant GT3 pole 
•    GetSpeed Team JR286 Mercedes GT3 AM pole, Herberth Porsche tops GT3 PRO-AM
•    Strong 992 pole for Mühlner Motorsport, HRT Performance tops 992 AM
•    NM Racing Mercedes controls GTX, Ligier of Not Only Motorsport heads TCE-TCX
•    Watch Saturday and Sunday’s racing live at Creventic Motorsports TV on YouTube

 SOUVERÄNE POLE-POSITION MICHELIN 12H SPA FÜR OPTIMUM MOTORSPORT-MCLAREN

Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium (17 April 2026):
British team Optimum Motorsport will start the weekend’s Michelin 12H SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS from pole position, after a fabulous performance from the squad’s No.77 McLaren 720S GT3 EVO throughout this afternoon’s three qualifying sessions.

Salman Owega had the duty of taking the decisive Q3 period, high pressure on his first time out in the McLaren, but the German starred with an imperious lap of 2m14.593 seconds to ensure the GT3 pole by over two tenths of a second. Team-mates Freddie Tomlinson and Harry George, the latter only getting the call-up to compete yesterday, each performed superbly in Q2 and Q1 respectively. 

“It’s my first weekend in the McLaren and I’m delighted, the car feels really good and really fast”, said Owega, “I didn’t know I was that fast, but it felt quite fast!”. Tomlinson added: “We’ll have a discussion later to find out who’s going to start the race but we’ve just got to try and build on a good qualifying performance, and just get as big of an advantage over everyone as we can.”

GetSpeed Team JR286 will start round two of the Michelin 24H SERIES European Series from second on the grid, and the GT3 AM pole, with an impressive showing from Adam Osieka, Steve Jans and Patrick Liddy. That trio will be joined by Tanner Harvey for Saturday and Sunday’s racing.

The second row is an all Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) EVO lock-out, with Herberth Motorsport’s Max Moritz, Alfred Renauer and Klaus Bachler third and taking the PRO-AM pole by little more than five hundredths of a second from Proton Competition’s Manuel Lauck, Constantin Dressler and Robert de Haan. The Proton trio expand to four drivers for the race, alongside Jörg Dreisow.

Mühlner Motorsport claimed 992 pole position with the trio of Julian Hanses, Conrad Tox Leveau and Tim Scheerbarth, who will be joined by Martin Rump across the weekend, with 992 AM pole going to the HRT Performance entry of Igor Sorokin, Steven Gambrell and James Kellet. Jonathan Kearney will partner the HRT trio for race days. 

The Mercedes-AMG GT2 car of NM Racing, piloted by Alberto de Martin, Manel Lao and Nil Montserrat, earned a dominant pole position in GTX, while the TCE-TCX pole was also taken in supreme style by Not Only Motorsport’s Ligier JS2 R shared by Gino Rocchio and Filippo Tornaghi.

Last year’s Spa pole qualifiers HOFOR Racing were on top in Q1 during the early running, with Alexander Prinz driving the Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO, but halfway through Optimum’s McLaren moved to the top with George punching in a time of 2m16.739s. 

E2P Racing’s Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 EVO soon came to the fore with Oliver Campos improving on second fastest to provisional pole with a time of 2m16.212s. Dressler took his Porsche to second, but was pipped to P2 by just 0.007s following a final lap flyer of 2m16.350s from George. 

Just over half a second covered the top six contenders going into session two, Osieka having ended Q1 fourth for GetSpeed Team JR286, Ayrton Redant fifth in the Ajith RedAnt Mercedes-AMG and Moritz sixth in the Herberth Porsche. 

Antonio Sainero took no time to get up to speed in the E2P Aston and was the first into the 2m15 seconds bracket, a superb lap of 2m15.211s keeping the car on pole, while the McLaren ended Q2 three tenths shy on average times with Tomlinson at the wheel. Ahead of session three, the No.286 GetSpeed Mercedes was third on aggregate thanks to the efforts of Jans.

With all still to play for into Q3, fractions would prove decisive with Aston Martin, McLaren, Mercedes-AMG and Porsche all in the fight for pole. Halfway through the session Proton’s Porsche was on provisional pole, de Haan lapping strongly, but the top order then chopped and changed in the closing minutes until Owega, with his blistering 2m14.593s, took Optimum to pole.

Behind the McLaren, GetSpeed’s No.286 Mercedes and the two Porsches, Ajith RedAnt Racing’s Mercedes – shared by Ayrton and Yannick Redant and Kobe de Breucker in qualifying – ended fifth on average times while Comtoyou Racing’s No.41 car of Xavier Knauf, Gregory Servais and Nicolas Baert was ultimately the highest placed Aston Martin in sixth.

Hanses made a good start for Mühlner Motorsport in the opening 15-minute qualifying session, just under a second clear of Jerome Boullery in the No.888 Seblajoux Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (992 I) with Hanses’ best lap a time of 2m20.335s. Third in session was the No.928 HRT Performance car of Sorokin, 0.6s further shy, with Fabian Danz fourth for Red Camel-Jordans.nl. 

Session two was halted after less than 90 seconds when the TCE-TCX class Ginetta stopped on Kemmel Straight. The delay didn’t last long and when the session was back underway the battle at the head of 992 closed significantly, with Tox Leveau’s quickest of 2m20.866s bettered by over half a second by a flying Enzo Joulié in the No.888 Porsche, elevating the latter to second overall.

Going into the decisive Q3, only 0.144s split Mühlner and the lead Seblajoux car with a grandstand battle in store. Into the second half of the session Scheerbarth kept Mühlner on top on average times with a lap of 2m20.459s, as Abdulla Ali Al Khelaifi produced a sensational 2m19.948 seconds to haul the QMMF by HRT Performance car to second in session and third on aggregate. 

Rik Breukers was ultra-quick too, delivering the fastest of qualifying to that point with a lap of 2m19.943s to place the No.909 Porsche second on average times – just before a red flag stoppage was required. At the resumption Breukers stayed in the pits, satisfied with his work, while Kellet in the No.928 HRT car set a time of 2m20.203s to move the entry to third overall.

Kellet then went faster still, a searing lap of 2m19.810s – the quickest of all in qualifying – to solidify third on the class grid for HRT, plus 992 AM pole, and just a fraction shy of the No.909. Fourth was the QMMF squad, thanks to Al Khelaifi’s heroic efforts in the final session.

Both Vortex V8 cars made the early running in qualifying one in GTX, first the No.702 car of Thierry Chkondali and then the No.701 of Philippe Bonnel. Neither, though, were ultimately able to match the NM Racing Mercedes-AMG GT2 piloted by de Martin which was three seconds faster.

In session two Lao steered the Mercedes to a lap of 2m24.231s, while Julien Boillot produced a time of 2m23.610s in the No.701 Vortex to more than halve the gap on average times ahead of Q3. Nil Montserrat took the final session for NM and ultimately sealed pole by some four seconds. There was little choose between the Vortex cars in Q3, but the No.701 was much quicker on average.

Not Only Motorsport dominated Q1 in the TCE-TCX class with Rocchio at the wheel of the squad’s Ligier JS2 R, the provisional pole lap an impressive time of 2m32.953 seconds. The returning J-Mec Engineering BMW M3 (E46) was second quickest in the hands of Kevin Clarke, just over a second shy, while third in session was Colin White’s CWS Engineering Ginetta G56.

Neale Muston climbed into the Ginetta for Q2, but the car ground to a halt along Kemmel Straight on the out lap from the pits and so red flags were flown. When qualifying resumed the Ligier again set the pace, now driven by Tornaghi, lapping in 2m30.730s to finish the session with double the advantage it held in Q1 over the J-Mec BMW – James Collins’ Q2 best being a lap of 2m33.921s.

More drama befell the CWS Ginetta midway through the third and final session when a wheel became detached, pitching the car into a spin and leading to a red flag stoppage. Rocchio was back at the wheel of the Ligier for Q3 and he wrapped-up the TCE-TCX pole two seconds clear on average from the BMW, driven in session three by Oliver Smith. The asBest Racing Cupra TCR DSG of Lutz Obermann, Junichi Umemoto and Samuel Hsieh was best of the rest, third on aggregate times.

Part one of the Michelin 12H SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, the opening five and a half hours of racing, will begin at 11.30 local time tomorrow, Saturday, 18 April. After the overnight break, under parc ferme conditions, the concluding six and a half hours will take place on Sunday, 19 April. Watch all of the action live at Creventic Motorsports TV on YouTube or through the link at www.24hseries.com