Zandvoort FIA GT: Sebastien Loeb McLaren on pole with Parente
Alvaro Parente claimed pole position for the Sebastien Loeb Racing McLaren squad for the third round of the FIA GT Series at Zandvoort
The McLaren factory driver took pole with a 1m37.923s lap aboard the lead Loeb MP4-12C, which put him just six one hundreths ahead of Andreas Simonsen in the fastest of the Gravity Charouz Mercedes.
Parente admitted surprise that he had qualified on pole after his car had languished down in 10th and eighth positions in the two free practice sessions on Friday.
"After yesterday, we weren't very confident," said the Portuguese, who shares the McLaren with rally legend Sebastien Loeb. "We were surprised to do that lap time.
"The lap went very well; I think I got the maximum out of the car."
Simonsen took pole in the Pro-Am class in the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG he shares with Sergei Afanasiev.
The Swede edged out WRT Audi driver Laurens Vanthoor by a further one hundredth.
Fourth place when to Alon Day in the Gravity Charouz Pro class car, with Rene Rast fifth in the second of the trio of WRT Audi R8 LMS ultras.
Race one will be streamed live on AUTOSPORT at 1145 GMT.
Pos Drivers Team/Car Time Gap 1. Loeb/Parente Loeb McLaren 1m37.923s 2. Afanasiev/Simonsen Gravity Charouz Mercedes 1m37.986s +0.063s 3. Ortelli/Vanthoor WRT Audi 1m38.001s +0.078s 4. Buhk/Day Gravity Charouz Mercedes 1m38.101s +0.178s 5. Mayr-Melnhof/Rast WRT Audi 1m38.455s +0.532s 6. Salaquarda/Onidi AF Ferrari 1m38.491s +0.568s 7. Bueno/Khodair Brasil BMW 1m38.720s +0.797s 8. Sandstrom/Stippler WRT Audi 1m38.735s +0.812s 9. Proczyk/Baumann Grasser Lamborghini 1m38.753s +0.830s 10. Kumpen/Ide Phoenix Audi 1m39.129s +1.206s 11. Ordonez/Buncombe RJN Nissan Q2 12. Campanico/Vieira Novadriver Audi Q2 13. Zonta/Jimenez Brasil BMW Q2 14. Parisy/Zuber Loeb McLaren Q2 15. Shulzhitskiy/Reip RJN Nissan Q2 16. Chandhok/Seyffarth Seyffarth Mercedes Q2 17. Ebrahim/Heemskerk India BMW Q2 18. Cunha/Stumpf Rodrive Lamborghini Q2 19. Braams/Huisman V8 Corvette Q2 20. Charouz/Stovicek Gravity Charouz Mercedes Q2
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