-
#30 W&S Motorsport, #22 Allied-Racing and #10 AVR-Avvatar Porsches never look back in Q1 and claim all three B.R.M Pole Positions for Race 1
-
perfect coup by the #17 V8 Racing Chevrolet to take B.R.M Pole Position in Race 2
-
success for W&S Motorsport (#31 Porsche) and AVR-Avvatar (#10 Porsche) to head Pro-Am and Am in the second race at Hockenheim
Qualifying 1 sees Porsches take command
Hockenheim not being the longest track in the GT4 European Series Powered by RAFA Racing Club, it took a while for the massive grid to find that sweet spot of clear track space and attempt a perfect flying lap. After a number of tentative laps, three cars managed to dive under the 1'47'' mark just past the halfway point. That turned out to be crucial timing for the top 3 when a red flag caused a brief interruption moments later.
The 1'46.398 lap time by Hendrik Still in the #30 W&S Motorsport Porsche Cayman was enough to put him and Pro-Am codriver Max Kronberg on overall pole position for this afternoon's Race 1. Second quickest lap time went to the leading Silver crew: Hartvig/Schaap in the #22 Allied-Racing Porsche Cayman, half a second clear of Rattican/Emson in the #77 Elite Motorsport with Entire Race Engineering McLaren Artura GT4 in third overall. Weyrich/Villagomez (#74 Racing Spirit of Léman) and Day/Del Sarte (#5 Mirage Racing) earned the remaining top five spots for Aston Martin. B.R.M Pole Position in Am Cup was confidently claimed by championship leaders Piguet/Varutti in the #10 AVR-Avvatar Porsche, from 12th overall.
V8 Racing Chevrolet finds perfect pace in Q2 to break further Porsche dominance
After another tentative start to Qualifying 2, where the first truly quick laps only appeared after a good seven minutes of track time, this session delivered an equally intense battle in the second half. For a while, it seemed Gabriele Piana was on an unstoppable mission in the #2 Hofor Racing by Bonk Motorsport BMW M4 GT4 when he exchanged fastest lap times a few times over with the #17 V8 Racing Chevrolet Camaro of Herremans/Rappange. But it was not to be for the Silver Cup leader, and in that fierce battle the 1'46.773 by the American GT4 machine turned out to be the winning lap time.
The second place on the front row of the Race 2 grid was claimed by the #94 SRS Team Sorg Rennsport Porsche of Ekelchik/Möller-Madsen, confirming their excellent form this weekend. Hartvig/Schaap took P3 in the #22 Allied-Racing Porsche, and Papadopulos/Ibanez converted an excellent final push in P4 with their #15 NM Racing Team Mercedes-AMG.
Pro-Am BRM Pole Position was stolen off the championship leading #42 Saintéloc Junior Team Audi (Guilvert/Hamon) just minutes before the end, by Vladykin/Loboda in the #31 W&S Motorsport Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS CS. Finally, Am Cup pole position for Race 2 was claimed once again by Piguet/Varutti in the #10 AVR-Avvatar Porsche, putting them now well in sight of the 2023 Am Cup crown. Dawson/Xavier in the #442 Porsche took P2 in Am, completing an excellent qualifying session for W&S Motorsport.
Now that starting grids have been fixed, the GT4 European Series Powered by RAFA Racing Club prepares for racing action in Hockenheim. Race 1 starts at 16.55 CEST later today. Race 2 starts tomorrow, Sunday, at 11.30 CEST.
Both qualifying and the races will be streamed live in English, French and German via the GT4 European Series website and the GTWorld YouTube channel.
____
Hockenheim – Qualifying 1 – Provisional Results
Hockenheim – Qualifying 2 – Provisional Results
