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Herberth Motorsport has secured overall pole position for the 2021 Hankook 24H BARCELONA, in spite of a last-minute run from WTM powered by Phoenix.

The WTM powered by Phoenix Ferrari 488 GT3 (#22, Georg Weiss / Leonard Weiss / Jochen Krumbach / Daniel Keilwitz / Hendrik Still) was the first to lay down a benchmark around the 4.675km Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, holding its advantage for well-over two-thirds of the 30-minute qualifying session. A storming 1m 46.587s lap though from Robert Renauer in the Herberth Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R (#91, Daniel Allemann / Ralf Bohn / Alfred Renauer / Robert Renauer) proved quick enough to secure provisional pole position for the former series champion by just 0.153s. Though WTM’s Daniel Keilwitz attempted to reclaim pole with a late-session run to the flag, the German driver could not improve his time.

The result marks the second outright pole position of the season for Herberth Motorsport, its first coming at this year’s Hankook 24H DUBAI.

“[Barcelona] is a good track for us,” Robert Renauer explained to radiolemans.com’s Nick Daman. “We’ve won here two times, we’ve been strong so far this weekend, and it was a good qualifying for us. We did one shot, a one-shot run, and that worked out for us. Pole position. It’s a really good result!”

The Rutronik Racing by TECE Audi R8 LMS GT3 (#18, Michael Doppelmayr / Pierre Kaffer / Elia Erhart / Swen Herberger) secured 3rd on the grid behind WTM Racing courtesy of a last-minute run by Pierre Kaffer. The CP Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 (#85, Charles Putman / Charles Espenlaub / Joe Foster / Shane Lewis) will line-up a season-best 4th, meaning four different manufacturers will start tomorrow’s Hankook 24H BARCELONA from the front two rows.

An early frontrunner during qualifying, the DINAMIC MOTORSPORT Porsche 991 GT3 R (#7, Roberto Pampanini / Mauro Calamia / Amedeo Pampanini / Nicolas Stürzinger) will start 5th overall ahead of the IDEC SPORT Mercedes-AMG GT3 (#17, Patrice Lafargue / Paul Lafargue / Paul-Loup Chatin / Nicolas Minassian), the latter making its first 24H SERIES start since 2019. The second Herberth Motorsport Porsche (#92, Jürgen Häring / Bobby Gonzales / Wolfgang Triller / Marco Seefried / Tim Müller) lines up alongside the first of three Car Collection Motorsport Audi R8s entered for this weekend’s event (#34, Johannes Dr. Kirchhof / Gustav Edelhoff / Elmar Grimm / Max Edelhoff / Stefan Aust), while the all-Spanish PCR Sport Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 (#16, Josep Mayola Comadira / Marc Carol Ybarra / Francesc Gutiérrez Agüi) will take the green flag for its home event from 9th on the grid, two-time outright event winner Francesc Gutiérrez Agüi having posted the team’s fastest lap.

RTR Projects KTM X-BOW GTX (#718, Tomáš Miniberger / Sergej Pavlovec / Erik Janiš / Petr Lisa / JM Littman) led a KTM X-BOW 1-2-3 in the GTX class, simultaneously posting the 10th fastest lap overall during qualifying. True Racing (#716, Miguel Oliveira / Reinhard Kofler / Ferdinand Stuck / Peter Kox), which this weekend has entered MotoGP race winner Miguel Oliviera, starts 2nd in-class, while Reiter Engineering (#724, Horst Felbermayr Jr. / Eike Angermayr / Mads Siljehaug), already a two-time class winner this season, rounds out the category’s top three.

Willi Motorsport by Ebimotors (#955, Fabrizio Broggi / Sergiu Nicolae / Sabino de Castro) took its first 991-class pole position of the season with its Porsche 911 GT3 Cup. Speed Lover (#978, Olivier Dons / Gavin Pickering / Ricky Coomber) and RABDAN by MRS GTRacing (#989, Saif Alameri / Audrius Butkevicius / Nicola Michelon / Nikolai Gadetskii) round out the category’s top three in qualifying, just ahead of Overall GT Teams’ standings leader, DUWO Racing (#909, Andrey Mukovoz / Stanislav Sidoruk / Sergey Peregudov).

The ST Racing BMW M4 GT4 (#438, Samantha Tan / Chandler Hull / Jon Miller / Nick Wittmer) continued its strong qualifying form in its maiden 24H SERIES season with a fifth consecutive pole position in the GT4 class (the Canadian team also qualified on pole for the non-championship Hankook 6H ABU DHABI). The RHC Jorgensen-Strom by Century BMW M4 GT4 (#450, Daren Jorgensen / Brett Strom / Danny van Dongen / Nathan Freke), a series returnee and former class winner, lines up directly behind its North American compatriot, but mechanical gremlins meant the Car Collection Motorsport Audi R8 LMS GT4 (#499, Lisa Clark / Mark Issa / Jeff Westphal / Martin Lechmann) was unable to post a lap. The German team will start at the back.

On its competitive debut at this weekend’s Hankook 24H BARCELONA, the Car Collection Motorsport Audi R8 LMS EVO2 (#500, Nathanaël Berthon / Christer Joens / Martin Lechmann / Patric Niederhauser) made a strong start with the 12th fastest lap of qualifying.

Following tonight’s official Night Practice at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, the green flag for the 22nd edition of the Hankook 24H BARCELONA will fly at 12.00 hrs local time on Saturday 4 September. The 24-hour event will run uninterrupted thereafter with the chequered flag due to drop at 12.00 hrs local time on Sunday 5 September.

Source: Creventic Media  www.24hseries.com