Spa 24 Hours: #2 WRT Audi on pole with Frank Stippler
WRT Audi driver Frank Stippler claimed pole position for tomorrow's Spa 24 Hours round of the Blancpain Endurance Series
Stippler jumped to the top of the times with a 2m18.130s aboard the #2 WRT Audi R8 LMS to eclipse VonRyan McLaren driver Kevin Estre by just 0.017s.
Estre's 2m18.147s put him 0.29s up on the Kessel Racing Ferrari 458 driven by Andrea Piccini, which claimed the Pro-Am class pole.
Stippler, who shares his second-generation Audi R8 with Stephane Ortelli and Nico Muller, said: "We struggled with the car for a long time yesterday, but we found a good balance right at the last minute yesterday.
"It was the best I've ever had on this car on new tyres: the car was at the top level, and me as well."
Estre, who drives the leading VonRyan car with Rob Bell and Shane van Gisbergen, also bounced back from a difficult start to the weekend.
The Frenchman damaged the car at Turn 11 in first free practice and only made it into the top 20 cars allowed to go through to Super Pole during the night qualifying session.
"It was not that easy yesterday to get a lap out of the car, but we improved the car through night qualifying and took a bit of a risk on set-up for Super Pole," he explained.
Fourth fastest was Alvaro Parente in the second of the VonRyan McLaren 650S GT3s, while Maxime Soulet was the fastest driver aboard a Bentley Continental GT3 in fifth.
Laurens Vanthoor, who set second fastest time aboard his WRT Audi over the first two qualifying sessions, ended up sixth, though only three tenths behind the pole time.
Marc VDS BMW driver Maxime Martin, who was fastest on Thursday, was more than half a second down on pole in 12th position.
The Super Pole session set the first 20 places on the grid, while the remainder of the field will line up based on the times set in the opening two qualifying sessions on Thursday.
Auto Sport Promotion Ferrari driver Jean-Philippe Belloc lost pole in the Am Cup class courtesy of a 10-place grid penalty for a yellow flag infringement.
That promoted the Team Parker Racing Audi, in which Callum MacLeod set the time, to the class pole.
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