The Ram Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 (#5, Remon Leonard Vos / Tom Onslow-Cole) has qualified on pole position for this year’s Hankook 12H IMOLA. Tom Onslow-Cole lapped the 4.909km Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari in 1m 42.480s, barely 0.4s faster than the Hofor-Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 (#1, Michael Kroll / Chantal Prinz / Roland Eggimann / Kenneth Heyer / Christiaan Frankenhout) in an astounding qualifying session in scorching temperatures for the third round of this year’s 24H SERIES powered by Hankook European Championship.
“I was really pushing!” polesitter Tom-Onslow Cole explained to radiolemans.com. “The guys gave me a call to say the [Forch Racing] Porsche was very close on that second set of tyres, so we really had to push for it and we went for a little more on the last lap. I may have got a little over-enthusiastic in the last chicane! But it’s a great result and we’re really looking forward to the race.”
The Forch Racing Porsche 991 GT3 R (#29, Zeljko Drmic / Patrick Eisemann / Robert Lukas) ultimately rounded out the top three both overall and in A6-Pro. The Polish entry will share the second row with the Herberth Motorsport Porsche 991 GT3 R (#911, Daniel Allemann / Ralf Bohn / Robert Renauer / Alfred Renauer), while the fastest A6-Am qualifier – the Swiss Team Mercedes-AMG GT3 (#15, Roberto Pampanini / Christoph Lenz / Mauro Calamia) – completes the top five in the GT division.
Further back in 8th, the PROsport Performance Mercedes-AMG GT3 (#85, Charles Putman / Charles Espenlaub / Joe Foster) was the second fastest A6-Am entrant just ahead of class rival Car Collection Motorsport Audi R8 LMS (#33, Ali Çapan / Siegfried Kuzdas / Horst Felbermayr Jr. / Isaac Tutumlu Lopez). In a stunning upset, Car Collection Motorsport won last year’s Hankook 12H IMOLA outright with its #33 entry.
Both the Mercedes-AMG and the Audi will start just behind the Bohemia Energy racing with Scuderia Praha Ferrari 488 GT3 (#11, Jiří Písařík / Josef Kral / Matteo Malucelli) and the IDEC SPORT RACING Mercedes-AMG GT3 (#17, Patrice Lafargue / Paul Lafargue / Dimitri Enjalbert). Incredibly, the top six GT runners qualified within one second of each other during a scintillating 45-minute session.
Meanwhile, the GDL Racing Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo (#77, Gianluca De Lorenzi / Andres Josephsohn / Dimitris Deverikos) was the 10th fastest GT car overall, setting SPX pole position well ahead of the Slidesports Pallex Porsche 991-II Cup (#83, Dave Fairbrother / Nigel Armstrong / Steven Liquorish / Adam Morgan) and the VDS Racing Adventures MARC Focus V8 (#58, Raphaël van der Straten / José Close / Gregory Paisse).
Just behind the GDL Racing SPX polesitter, the Raceunion Porsche 991-II Cup (#187, Alex Autumn / Felipe Fernández Laser / Andreas Gülden) was the fastest 991-class runner, just ahead of Allied Racing (#93, Jan Kasperlik / Hendrik Still / Csaba Mor) and EBIMOTORS (#73, Lino Curti / Carlo Curti / Marco Frezza).
Following the withdrawal of Endurance Team Romania, GT4 will be a straight-fight between the Allied Racing Porsche Cayman GT4 MR Evo 2018 (#263, Dominique Schaak / Detlef Schmidt / Nicolas Schöll / Jörg Viebahn) and the QSR Racingschool Mercedes-AMG GT4 (#254, Mario Timmers / Bert Redant / Michiel Verhaeren / Jimmy de Breucker).
TCE – Modena Motorsports narrowly pips Red Camel-Jordans.nl
Earlier in the afternoon, the Modena Motorsports CUPRA TCR (#216, Wayne Shen / John Shen / Francis Tjia / Mathias Beche) set the fastest lap in the TCE division, LMP1 star Mattias Beche setting a fastest lap of 1m 53.783s. The Hong Kong-entered CUPRA was also the fastest TCR car, qualifying just 0.096s ahead of the Red Camel-Jordans.nl SEAT LCR TCR (#303, Ivo Breukers / Rik Breukers).
JR Motorsport (#118, Bas Schouten / Ward Sluys) was the third fastest of the TCE runners and the overall quickest of the SP3 category, the BMW E46 Coupé lapping the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari just over a tenth faster than the first of three Bas Koeten Racing entries at Hankook 12H IMOLA this weekend, the LMS Racing by Bas Koeten Racing CUPRA TCR (#129, Antti Buri / Olli Kangas). The Munckhof Racing BMW M4 (#259, Frank Bedorf / Marco Poland) and the GermanWheels BMW M3 (#132, Jan C. Kortüm / Michael Luther / Klaus Engelbrecht-Schnür) complete the SP3 class top three, albeit a little further back in the pack.
Trouble meanwhile struck the sister Kawasaki Racing by Bas Koeten Racing CUPRA TCR (#155, Kristian Jepsen / Jan Sorensen / Anthony Lambert) after a massive accident in free practice this morning. The SEAT was unable to set a laptime in qualifying, despite a superb effort by the Dutch outfit, and will consequently start from the tail of the field.
The second Modena Motorsport entry – a SEAT Leon TCR this time (#217, Christian Chia / Marcel Tjia / Michael Soeryadjaya / Mathias Beche) – ended TCE qualifying as the 4th fastest TCR entrant just ahead of the debuting TFT/top loc racing Audi RS3 LMS (#555, Philippe Thirion / Denis Caillon / Bruno Bazaud / Antoine Lacoste / Sebastien Morales), the fastest of the Audi runners.
Towards the tail of the field, the Hofor Racing powered bei Bonk Motorsport BMW M235i Racing Cup (#131, Martin Kroll / Michael Schrey / Michael Fischer / Bernd Küpper / Gustav Engljaehringer) was the fastest runner in CUP1, narrowly edging the Sorg Rennsport BMW M235i Racing Cup (#151, Dan Rogers / Gama Aguilar / Rob Cohen / Seth Thomas) for category pole position. The Swiss team’s second BMW entry (#127, Martin Kroll / Jurgen Meyer / Axel Burghardt) rounds out the top three in-class.
