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Autosport
Autosport
Sport
Gary Watkins

Spa 24 Hours: Lamborghini takes first event pole

Caldarelli posted a 2m16.221s at the wheel of his Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO on the second of his two flying laps to prevent Mercedes driver Raffaele Marciello taking a third consecutive pole for the blue riband round of the GT World Challenge Europe.

Marciello had gone fastest in his factory Auto Sport Promotion Mercedes-AMG GT3 with a 2m16.375s in the session for the fastest 20 cars from first qualifying on Thursday, but ended up missing out on a hat-trick by 0.154s

Caldarelli, who has twice qualified second for the Spa enduro, said: “I’m happy because it is the first pole here for Lamborghini and in previous years we have come close.

“The track conditions were completely different to yesterday, so I took it easy on my first lap and attacked on the second.

“I have made a mistake at the last corner [on the first of the two laps allowed to each driver], so I knew there was a couple of tenths there.”

Klaus Bachler had been quickest on a 2m16.446s in his Dinamic Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3-R until he was pushed down to third by Marciello and Caldarelli.

Fourth place went to the GetSpeed Mercedes of Luca Stolz, whose 2m16.589s was less than four tenths off the ultimate pace.

#71 Iron Lynx Ferrari 488 GT3: Davide Rigon, Daniel Serra, Antonio Fuoco (Photo by: SRO)

Mirko Bortolotti took fifth in his Emil Frey Lambowith a 2m16.620s, while Kevin Estre, the second driver out on track, ended up sixth with a 2m16.702s in his GPX Racing Porsche.

Top Audi driver was Mattia Drudi in the factory Tresor R8 LMS GT3 Evo II in seventh position.

The two Iron Lynx Ferrari 488 GT3 Evos that had blocked out the top two positions during the first qualifying session based on the times set by each driver ended up down the order in Superpole.

Antonio Fuoco, who set the fastest lap over the four mini-sessions of first qualifying, ended up 11th with a 2m16.892s set on his second lap.

Nicklas Nielsen took 13th in the sister car courtesy of a 2m16.932s set on his first flying lap.

Nicky Catsburg and Maxime Martin were respectively 16th and 17th in the only entries from BMW and Aston Martin to make it through to the Superpole session.

This weekend’s Spa 24 Hours, the 74th running of the Belgian enduro, begins at 4:15pm local time.

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