In Sunday morning’s qualifying session, it was Rast who took the second pole position of the weekend. Another good day for Audi with a 1-2-3 qualifying with the best BMW in fourth.
In the early stages of qualifying, BMW’s Sheldon van der Linde topped the timesheets. But after the first runs, it was yesterday’s polesitter Robin Frijns who led the timesheets with a 2:04.868. A four-tenths advantage over his teammate Mueller. Then, in the second half of the session, Frijns improved his previous time, taking provisional pole with a 2:04.484.
However, half of the grid set purple sectors in the final minute of the session. Including Rast, who prevented Frijns from taking his second pole position of the weekend with a ‘really really good lap’ of 2:04.199. Earlier in the session, he was told by his engineer to improve the second sector, where he was losing time. The pair will line up alongside each other on the front row of the grid.
Yesterday’s race winner Mueller will start today’s race from third on the grid. The gap between him and Rast on pole was nearly six-tenths. Lining up alongside him in fourth is Sheldon van der Linde – best of the BMW’s. The South African driver commented: ‘My heart rate was absolutely through the roof. It’s an amazing feeling to drive at Spa. I can’t express how happy I was during the lap. It doesn’t feel like a job, to be honest. It feels like a dream. The track today was a bit cooler [than yesterday]. So basically, it allowed us to go a bit faster today.
Philipp Eng, who finished yesterday’s race as best of the BMW’s, will start from fifth on the grid today. Closely followed by Timo Glock in sixth. Jamie Green, fourth-best Audi today starts seventh, alongside two-time champion Marco Wittmann. Completing the top 10 are BMW’s Lucas Auer en Mike Rockenfeller, who had been third with just a minute left on the clock.
BMW’s new face Jonathan Aberdein will start from 11th on the grid. Leading rookie today was Robert Kubica in 12th. Audi’s Loic Duval was 13th, followed by the other two rookies from WRT – Fabio Scherer and Harrison Newey.
Finally, the third WRT, Ferdinand Habsburg, managed to take part in today’s qualifying as his mechanics worked all day and night to fix his car after his accident yesterday morning. Though, he failed to set a lap as his lap times were cancelled due to track limits.
Update: Initially, Mike Rockenfeller’s fastest time was taken away because of track limits. After qualifying he got his time back and therefore started from fifth on the grid.
