Vanthoor tops pre-qualifying as Belgian Audi Club Team WRT hits form

Vanthoor tops pre-qualifying as Belgian Audi Club Team WRT hits form

Four different brands shared the top four places in pre-qualifying at the Nürburgring, with Dries Vanthoor ensuring that Audi emerged as the best of the bunch.

Vanthoor's 1m54.990s lap in the #32 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT entry beat the GPX Racing Porsche of Thomas Preining by 0.025s as the German marques showed strong form on home turf.

Maro Engel completed the top-three in his #4 HRT Mercedes-AMG, while the #51 AF Corse Ferrari was next thanks to James Calado. Lamborghini was the only other brand among the top-10, with Dennis Lind putting the #63 Orange1 FFF Racing machine seventh. 

The Silver Cup class was topped by the #56 Dinamic Motorsport Porsche, with Mikkel O. Pedersen setting the time for the Italian outfit to end the session eighth overall. One spot back was the Pro-Am leader, AF Corse's #51 Ferrari, which produced excellent pace with Andrea Bertolini at the wheel. 

Thanks to their class-leading runners, Ferrari and Porsche both ended pre-qualifying with three cars among the overall top-10. The #26 Sainteloc Racing Audi, which is running in the Am Cup, finished 48th overall. Full session times can be viewed via the link at the bottom of this page. 

This afternoon's run was completed without a stoppage, despite a slick surface caused by light rain falling at some parts of the 5.1km circuit. Indeed, a single yellow flag at turn 16 was the only brief interruption.   

Cars will be back on-track tonight at 19.10 to contest qualifying. This will set the grid for tomorrow's six-hour race, which gets underway at 11.45.