An early red flag to clear Jean-Paul Buffin’s crashed Mercedes ensured drivers were left with just 13 of the scheduled 20 minutes with which to set competitive lap times, a situation further complicated by a steadily drying track.
It wasn’t long before championship leader Broniszewski hit the front, initially eclipsing Martin Lanting’s provisional pole time by almost three seconds before continuing to chip away at his rivals’ best efforts. Only Patrick Van Glabeke would head the field thereafter, although his time at the top was brief after two more blockbuster laps from the Pole.
Indeed, not only was Broniszewski’s final benchmark of 2m38.941s the fastest lap of the weekend, but it was also 2.6s quicker than Daniel Vogt could manage aboard the HP Racing Mercedes SLS AMG GT3 that claimed second from Van Glabeke’s Ferrari 488 GT3 by a mere 0.059s in the closing stages.
Pierre Hirschi’s BMW Z4 GT3 was another late addition to the top of the leaderboard after a fast final lap helped him topple FP1 pace-setter Davide Roda’s Renault RS01. Alexis de Bernardi’s Ferrari completed the top-six.
Anthony Pons briefly appeared in the top-three before slipping to seventh in the final reckoning ahead of Coach McKansy’s Lamborghini Gallardo and Iron Cup pace-setter Stephen Earle. Over-60s rival Jan Brunstedt was one place further back – but first of the Audi drivers – in 10th, while class points leader Lanting eventually wound up 14th overall.
Blancpain GT Sports Club’s 25-minute Qualifying Race begins at 17:20 this evening.
Click here for the complete Qualifying classification.