Finn Gehrsitz beat Proton Competition to his first LMGT3 pole position at the FIA World Endurance Championship’s 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps.
The FIA WEC season rookie put Akkodis ASP’s #78 Lexus RC F on LMGT3 pole position for the first time in championship history.
Gehrsitz, aged 20, performed strongly during qualifying to command the session and claim the top spot for the third round on Saturday, 10 May.
During the opening Q1 session, the FIA Bronze-graded drivers targeted the top-10 threshold with great motivation to fight for a chance at pole position.
A mixture of the category’s nine manufacturers fought for the honour, as United Autosports seemed to struggle to reach the sharper end of the field, having qualified the #59 McLaren 720S LMGT3 Evo on the second row in last year’s race.
The depth and competition of LMGT3 were apparent when 17 cars covered under two seconds, and more importantly, the top 11 under just one second.
Aston Martin, Ford and Ferrari were the only manufacturers with both cars in the Q2/Hyperpole session.
Gehrsitz and Lexus front Racing Spirit of LeMan Aston
Gehrsitz set a fastest lap time of 2:17.732 in the #78 Lexus, ahead of Eduardo Barrichello, son of Rubens Barrichello, in Racing Spirit of LeMan’s #10 Aston Martin Vantage LMGT3 Evo.
Ben Tuck’s #77 Proton Competition Ford Mustang (2:18.016) claimed third.
The other Mustang, the #88 machine, qualified fourth after Giammarco Levorato set a 2:18.229, thus marking Proton’s best qualifying performance with the new Mustang.
Francesco Castellacci took fifth place in the #54 AF Corse Ferrari 296 LMGT3 and his 2:18.288 lap time, followed by Zach Rubichon’s #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin with a 2:18.314.
Simon Mann’s #21 AF Corse Ferrari took seventh, which completed a 2:18.456.
Riccardo Pera finished in eighth place for the 6 Hours of Imola LMGT3 winners, Manthey, and their #92 Porsche 911 LMGT3.R (2:18.917).
Valentino Rossi, who claimed pole last time out at Imola, grasped ninth position in the #46 WRT BMW M4 LMGT3 Evo (2:19.753).
Clemens Schmid rounded out the top-10 order, although he completed no laps during Hyperpole qualifying.
TF Sport’s Tom van Rumpuy finished 11th in the #81 Corvette Z06 GT3.R (2:20.215) in front of Yasser Shahin’s #31 WRT BMW (2:20.252).
Iron Dames driver Celia Martin lines up for the race in 13th after she set a 2:20.320.
Darren Leung, driving the #95 United Autosports McLaren, drove a 2:20.482 for P14 ahead of Iron Lynx’s #61 Mercedes-AMG LMGT3 Evo driver Martin Berry (2:20.539).
James Cottingham took P16 in the #59 United Autosports McLaren after his 2:20.857, thus followed by TF Sport’s #81 Corvette in P17 (2:21.184).
The #60 Iron Lynx, which suffered a significant crash in FP3, rounded out the 18-car field.
See here for qualifying results. The 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps commences at 14:00 local time or 13:00 BST.
