Six of the 14 Porsche 911 GT3 R made it into the top 20 in the four-part qualifying session for the 24-hour race at Spa-Francorchamps. This means they can move into the super pole session tomorrow, Friday afternoon, and fight for the best grid positions. The 911 from Pure Rxcing achieved the average best time of all four drivers. It will be driven by Aliaksandr Malykhin, Joel Sturm, Marco Seefried and Klaus Bachler. The quartet also took first place in the Bronze Cup on Thursday evening. The 911 GT3 R from Manthey EMA is at the top of the Pro classification. The long-distance classic begins on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. (CEST).

In increasingly difficult weather conditions, the Porsche customer teams delivered an excellent performance with the 911 GT3 R at Spa-Francorchamps. In the end, the GT3 racing car from Pure Rxcing, which started in the Bronze Cup, was ahead on average of the fastest lap times of all drivers. Aliaksandr Malykhin made a significant contribution to this result: The Brit set an excellent time of 2:18.937 minutes very early on in the first quarter of qualifying. After that, the session was interrupted due to an accident. At the restart, the track conditions had already deteriorated to such an extent due to increasingly heavy precipitation that there was hardly any room for improvement.

Second, sixth and eighth place in the Bronze Cup also went to Porsche customer teams. The number 20 911 from Huber Motorsport with Antares Au (Hong Kong), German DTM driver Tim Heinemann, Matteo Cairoli from Italy and Jannes Fittje (Germany) finished third overall. The CLMR 911 GT3 R, driven by the all-French quartet Clément Mateu, Hugo Chevalier, Steven Palette and works driver Frédéric Makowiecki, moved up to sixth overall position, while the Herberth Motorsport car is eighth in the absolute timetable. The Germans Alfred and Robert Renauer, Ralf Bohn and the Dutchman Kay van Berlo alternate at the wheel.

The three Pro 911s went into qualifying with a handicap: Since they are only manned by three drivers, they were only allowed to intervene in the second quarter – but by then the rain had already intensified. Client team Manthey EMA's so-called Grello made the most of this disadvantage. Ex-Porsche junior Julien Andlauer from France as well as the two works drivers Kévin Estre (France) and local hero Laurens Vanthoor fought their way up to seventh place overall. However, Rutronik Racing and Dinamic GT Huber Racing missed out on the Super Pole session.

As the sixth and last 911 GT3 R crew, Australians Stephen and Brenton Grove in 20th place can look forward to taking part in the top 20 time trial. They are supported in their Grove Racing team by their compatriot Anton de Pasquale and Earl Bamber. As a Porsche works driver, the New Zealander won the Le Mans 24 Hours in the 919 Hybrid in 2015 and 2017.

The final hunt for the 20 best starting places begins on Friday between 3:35 p.m. and 4:05 p.m. (CEST). The 24-hour race on the Belgian Grand Prix circuit starts at 4:30 p.m. local time on Saturday. It is considered the largest event for GT3 vehicles worldwide and counts for the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup and the Intercontinental GT Challenge (IGTC). Drivers and vehicles receive points for the GT World Challenge after six, twelve and 24 hours. The race will be streamed live on the website www.intercontinentalgtchallenge.com.

Quotes on qualifying
Sebastian Golz (Project Manager Porsche 911 GT3 R):“That was a very good qualifying for the Porsche customer teams and for us. Six 911 GT3 R in the top 20 – that's a great result. It doesn't matter whether it's in the Pro, Pro-Am or Bronze Cup category: the guys did a great job. Of course the conditions were somewhat fortunate that the driest conditions prevailed in the first session. On the other hand, the last three qualifying quarters were very wet and tricky for everyone. Tomorrow is the Super Pole session. Let's see what we can get out of there. Everyone is positive, that is the most important thing this weekend.”

Aliaksandr Malykhin (Porsche 911 GT3R #911):"I'm proud of our team. We really did a great job in these difficult conditions. The mood among us drivers is very good, we help each other enormously with a close exchange of information on the track conditions and our 911 GT3 R. I was able to lay the foundation with my lap time, my teammates and our engineers then used that perfectly in qualifying for the Super - Pole converted.”

Tim Heinemann (Porsche 911 GT3 R #20):“Of course we are very happy that we qualified for the Super Pole. That was quite unexpected. Of course we were able to benefit from driving in the dry Q1 segment. Being able to start from the top 20 is a very good starting position for the race, which we will prepare for in tomorrow's warm-up."

Kévin Estre (Porsche 911 GT3 R #92):“A crazy qualifying! It was all about deciding when to go out on the track with which tires and with what air pressure. The team has done a great job in this respect: we are the best-placed car from the Pro category, which with only three drivers was not allowed to take part in the still dry first part of qualifying. We all acted flawlessly and therefore contributed to this qualification for the Super Pole.”

Laurin Heinrich (Porsche 911 GT3R #96):“Without participating in the first quarter of qualifying in dry conditions, it was of course very difficult to achieve a good average lap time. We did our best, but it wasn't quite enough, even though our Porsche 911 GT3 R was very quick in the rain. So we're going into my first 24 hours of Spa-Francorchamps from 30th place on the grid. It's a long race, so nothing is lost."

Qualifying results
1. (BC) Bachler/Malykhin/Sturm/Seefried (A/UK/D/D), Porsche 911 GT3 R #911, 2:28.569 minutes
2 .(1st GC) De Haan, Gamble, Fagg, Macdonald (GB/GB/GB/GB) McLaren 720S GT3 EVO #5, 2:28.923 minutes 3rd (
2nd BC) Au/Heinemann/Cairoli/Fittje (HK /D/I/D), Porsche 911 GT3 R #20, 2:29.103 minutes
6th (4th BC) Palette/Mateu/Makowiecki/Chevalier (F/F/F/F), Porsche 911 GT3 R #44, 2:30.323 minutes 7th (1st Pro)
Vanthoor/Estre/Andlauer (B/ F/F). Porsche 911 GT3 R #92, 2:30.456 minutes
8th (5th BC) Bohn/A. Renauer/R. Renauer/van Berlo (D/D/D/NL), Porsche 911 GT3 R #91, 2:30.497 minutes
20th (7th BC) B. Grove/S. Grove/Bamber/de Pasquale (AUS/AUS/NZ/AUS), Porsche 911 GT3 R #23, 2:31.502 minutes 30. (15th
Pro) Preining/Heinrich/Olsen (A/D/N), Porsche 911 GT3 R #96, 2:32.039 minutes
31st (9th BC) /Jewiss/Meyrick/Maassen (UK/UK/UK/NL), Porsche 911 GT3 R #62, 2:32.104 minutes
35th (2nd PAC) Leutwiler /Jacoma/Fontana/Menzel (CH/CH/CH/D), Porsche 911 GT3 R #24, 2:32.405 minutes 37. (16th
Pro) Güven/Müller/Engelhart (TR/D/D) Porsche 911 GT3 R #54, 2:32.704 minutes
55th (17th BC) Sager/Nakken/Barker/Zöchling (A/N/UK/D), Porsche 911 GT3 R #55, 2:35.620 minutes 58th (8th SC) Sathienthirakul/Rappange/di Amato/
de Leener (T/NL/I/UK), Porsche 911 GT3 R #56, 2:38.436 minutes
67. (10th PAC) Tjia/Shen/Simonsen/Beche (HK/HK/DKCH), Porsche 911 GT3 R #216 , no time
68th (11th PAC): Washington/Sofronas/Bleekemolen/Long (USA/USA/NL/USA), Porsche 911 GT3 R #132, no time Pro

= Pro class; PAC = Pro-Am Cup; GC = Gold Cup; SC = Silver Cup; BC = Bronze Cup