The first ever qualifying sessions for the Fanatec GT2 European Series at Circuit Dijon-Prenois have put Audi and Porsche top of the order ahead round three in France.
For Henry Hassid and Anthony Beltoise, pole position for the first race of the weekend gives the French driver duo the best possible chance of victory at their home event aboard the #67 Audi R8 LMS GT2.
Pierre Kaffer then followed suit by claiming a second pole for LP Racing in Q2 aboard the #18 Audi he shares with Michael Doppelmayr.
It was a significant afternoon for Ebimotors too, with Leonardo Gorini bagging double Am-class qualifying honours across the two 20-minute qualifying sessions in the sun in France.
Qualifying 1
With the Am drivers the first to take on qualifying duties for round three, a gaggle of drivers including Gorini, Jan Krabec and Koch all took a turn at the top of the timing screens. Come the second half of the 20-minute session, it was the #17 KTM that looked set to take pole on Koch’s series debut as he sits in for Hubert Trunkenpolz this weekend.
Hassid, however, had other plans. Leaving his run to late in the session amid the blazing hot conditions, he timed his blistering lap in the #67 Audi to perfection. With less than three minutes remaining, his time of 1:18.518 would prove unbeatable, securing his second pole of the season so far.
While Hassid may have dominated, things couldn’t have been much closer behind him as a mere 0.2s separated second to eighth on the grid.
Koch’s impressive debut performance was good enough to secure a front row start, but Christoph Breuer managed to push the Manthey Racing Porsche to finish just 0.018 shy of the KTM’s time. In turn, Peter Guelinckx came even closer to Breuer in the PK Carsport Audi he shares with Stienes Longin – 0.076 separating their best laps.
Solo Am entry, Gorini threatened to gate crash that party as he took pole in the category while finishing fifth overall and a mere 0.076s adrift of the Audi. Three-time race winner so far this season, Jan Krabec took the fight to the Porsche with a time just 0.022s short to complete the overall top six.
Nicolas Saelens showed that the #15 KTM clearly has the pace to fight it out at the sharp end this weekend but track limit infringements meant his best times, which had placed him on the cusp of the fight for pole, were disallowed. He and teammate Stefan Rosina will start P7 ahead of the sister TKM of Klaus Angerhofer and Sehdi Sarmini.
Qualifying 2
The second qualifying session of the afternoon was almost as close. Kaffer came out on top of that battle, setting the benchmark of 1:16.867. The LP Racing entry was pushed all the way by True Racing’s Reinhard Kofler in the #17 KTM, with a time 0.3s adrift of the top spot to secure a front-row start for tomorrow afternoon.
The sister KTM driven by Rosina was in the thick of the fight once again to head row two with a time 0.015 ahead of Stienes Longin in the PK Carsport entry, who is hungry for another win in the #1 Audi this weekend. Beltoise, in charge of the #67 Audi, clocked in fifth fastest ahead of series newcomer Marco Holzer in the #10 Porsche.
Gorini once again set the bar for the Am contenders, taking a second consecutive class pole ahead of Ebimotors’ Mantas Janavicius in the #5 Porsche. Krabec completed the top three in the category for the RTR Projects KTM.
Racing for round three tomorrow (Saturday) gets underway with the first 50-minute Fanatec GT2 race taking place at 12:00, followed by race two at 17:25. Both races will be streamed live on the series website and via GTWorld on YouTube.