Elite at the double as McLarens lead Barcelona Qualifying

Nova Racing’s Porsche and the CMR Ginetta shared the Pro-Am poles, while Elite added a third success thanks to Reema Juffali scoring top spot in the Am class for Race 1. Daniel Blickle restored the title-chasing #30 W&S Porsche to the front of the class for Race 2, and in doing so ensured a maximum haul of bonus points for the car.

The Pro-Am title battle is also heating up, despite neither of the contenders starting at the front. Mirage Racing’s Aleksandr Vaintrub and Stanislav Safronov hold the early advantage thanks to a nightmare session for W&S Motorsport crew Hendrik Still and Joachim Bölting.

Q1: Rattican beats his own best

Rattican returned to Barcelona with both the qualifying and race lap records under his belt, and went on to prove why he is such a force around the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya by lowering his own benchmark in Q1.

Nobody had an answer to the flying #78 McLaren, as Rattican went 0.8s clear with his first effort, and then improved again to a 1:48.578s, knocking 0.1s off his own record. Jan Duran did the best job of trying to trim the gap, placing the #87 Matmut Évolution Toyota second, 0.6s off.

Gregory Guilvert was third fastest in the #8 Team Speedcar Audi, ahead of a superb effort from Nova Racing’s Edvin Hellsten, who put the #2 Porsche fourth overall and onto Pro-Am pole. Home hero Lluc Ibañez was fifth for NM Racing Team, with Hugo Mogica sixth overall and second in Pro-Am aboard CMR’s Ginetta.

One driver to struggle was Still, who initially looked to have moved the Pro-Am title-chasing W&S Porsche onto the front row, only to have his time scrubbed for track limits. A second infringement then claimed another effort, leaving the #32 Cayman a disappointed 13th in class, a full 10 places behind points leaders Safronov and Vaintrub, who start third in class.

Juffali left it late to strike in the Am division, with her late-session best good enough to displace Max Kronberg from top spot. However, with Juffali being a non-scoring guest entry, Kronberg and Blickle gained an extra point for the class pole, which could prove vital with Jean-Mathieu Leandri and Antoni de Barn starting fifth in their Chazel BMW. 

Q2: Cresswell at record pace for the double

Cresswell didn’t just continue the momentum set by Rattican in Q1, he bettered it by shaving 0.016s off the benchmark to claim the record for himself.

The second session was quicker overall, with Cresswell only enjoying a 0.4s buffer at the top after setting a 1:48.562s lap for everybody to chase. Again it fell to the #87 Toyota to bring the challenge, with Hadrien David best of the rest. Charlie Hart backed up his strong Pre-Qualifying form by putting the #812 RAFA Racing McLaren third, ahead of new Silver champion Robert Consani.

Thibaut Mogica led the way in Pro-Am, with his late effort snatching pole for CMR ahead of AV Racing’s #27 Porsche in the hands of GT4 Europe newcomer Arthur Rasse. Again the #7 Mirage Aston Martin held the championship momentum with Vaintrub starting fifth, with Bölting just 11th.

W&S made is a maximum qualifying score in Am, with Blickle unstoppable in the session, stretching their points gap over Leandri/De Barn to 12 ahead of Race 1. Ali Juffali was second fastest for Elite, with Ismaeel Ellahi third for W&S and De Barn fourth.

Results are HERE