Spa-Francorchamps. The first two qualifying sessions of the new Prototype Cup Germany largely took place in glorious sunshine at the Belgian Grand Prix circuit in Spa-Francorchamps. The two pole positions went to Florian Janits of Reiter Engineering and Matt Bell, in the colours of Nielsen Racing.
Austrian Janits was the fastest man in the first qualifying session, earning his team Reiter Engineering the first pole position in the history of the Prototype Cup Germany. This is a familiar feeling for the Bavarian outfit, for whom Christopher Haase secured the first pole position in ADAC GT Masters history back in 2007. In a battle of two Ligier JS P320, it was Janits who came out on top, lapping a mere 0.039 seconds faster than Berkay Besler from the Toksport WRT team. Leonard Weiss qualified third in his Duqueine D08, run by Wochenspiegel Team Monschau.
Toksport WRT was again in the thick of the battle for the front of the grid in the second qualifying. This time, it was Marvin Dienst at the wheel. However, the first ADAC Formula 4 champion eventually had to settle for second place behind Britain’s Matt Bell, who completed the 7.004-kilometre Spa-Francorchamps circuit 0.541 seconds faster in his Duqueine D08. Mühlner Motorsport driver Donar Munding secured third place on the grid for his team at its home event – Bernhard Mühlner’s outfit is based just four kilometres from Spa-Francorchamps in Stavelot.
Shortly before the start of the two back-to-back qualifying sessions, Franz Konrad was forced to withdraw from the event. The experienced driver had suffered an injury a few days prior to the race weekend, and was unable to start. As a result, team-mate Axcil Jefferies contested both qualifying sessions, finishing fifth and sixth in his Ginetta G61-LT-P3. Speed Factory Racing was also unable to contest the two qualifying sessions with its drivers Santiago Concepcion Serrano and Girgio Rosa, due to a technical issue which could not be solved in time.
The first race in the new series for LMP3, CN and P4 cars gets underway at 10:05 on Saturday 23rd April. Race two then starts at the same time on Sunday. Both races are streamed live and free from 10:00 at youtube.com/adac, adac.de/motorsport and youtube.com/24hseries.