Blancpain GT Series: ROWE Racing Porsche On Pole At Barcelona.

Sven Müller, Romain Dumas and Mathieu Jaminet put the #98 ROWE Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R on pole for the final round of the 2019 Blancpain GT Series at Circuit de Catalunya-Barcelona. The #98 trio lapped in an average time of 1:45.032, .054 seconds quicker than the #4 BLACK FALCON Mercedes-AMG GT3 trio Maro Engel, Yelmer Buurman and Luca Stolz.

The top three on the grid for three-hour Endurance Cup race was completed by the #563 Orange 1 FFF Racing Team Lamborghini Huracan GT3 driven by Albert Costa, Andrea Caldarelli and Marco Mapelli.

Qualifying honours in the Silver Cup class went to the #90 AKKA ASP Team Mercedes in which Nico Bastian, Timur Boguslavskiy and Felipe Fraga put in an average lap time of 1:45.397. The #555 FFF Racing Lamborghini was second quickest in the Silver Cup category, lapping in 1:45.668

Quickest of the Pro-Am Cup entries was the #87 AKKA ASP Team Mercedes crewed by Jim Pla, Mauro Ricci and Jean-Luc Beaubelique, the #87 crew lapping .113 seconds quicker than the second-in-class #74 RAM Racing Mercedes.

Pole in the Am Cup class was taken by the #77 Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini driven by Adrian Amstutz, Leo Machitski and Miguel Ramos.

Q1 Red Flagged After Spins At Turn Three.

The first qualifying session was red flagged with over eight minutes remaining after the #74 RAM Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 with Remon Vos at the wheel went off at Turn three. Chris Buncombe, driving the #93 Pro-Am Cup Ferrari F488 GT3 also spun off at the same corner and had to be craned back on to the circuit.

Raffaele Marciello went quickest early in the session, putting in a 1:44.598 in the #88 Mercedes-AMG Team AKKA ASP Mercedes on his second lap.

As the session resumed, there was confusion as the cars were held at the pit exit as the clock was running down. A further minute was added to the session as a result but Marciello’s time from the start of the session stood as provisional pole.

The #563 Orange 1 FFF Racing Team Lamborghini Huracan GT3 and the #4 BLACK FALCON Mercedes finished the first session fifth and sixth quickest, Albert Costa and Maro Engel setting lap times just .009 seconds apart. Costa was sitting in for an unwell Dennis Lind in the #563 car for the final round.

Q2 saw the #563 Lamborghini at the top of the timing screens, Andrea Caldarelli lapping in 1:44.942 on his second lap. Yelmer Buurman managed a 1:45.324 in the #4 Mercedes, meaning that the #563 car was provisionally on the front row of the grid on average times.

Q3 got underway with Luca Stolz putting in a 1:44.714 to put the #4 Mercedes on provisional pole but Mathieu Jaminet then lapped in 1:44.880 to put the #98 ROWE Racing Porsche to the top of the average times, a position which the #98 car kept for the remainder of the session.

#98 Porsche Crew Take First Pole Of Season.

Romain Dumas was delighted to be starting at the front of the 48-car grid.

“We have been waiting for it all year long and the race will be another story. We had good performance and everything is going well so we shall wait and see. We hope to finish on the top of the podium but let’s have a nice race and afterwards we will see.”

Sven Müller was pleased at how the car had improved throughout the weekend.

“Finally we are on pole and I am really happy. We have struggled a bit but all through the weekend we have improved the car and we had a good qualy shot this morning. Let’s hope we have a good race.”

The final round of the 2019 Blancpain GT Series gets underway at 15:00 local time on Sunday September 30.