ERHART AND FÖRBACH SHARE EUROPEAN GT 2 SERIES POLE POSITION AT VALENCIA

Qualifying for the penultimate round of the European Fanatec GT2 series brought four pole position winners in Valencia in different classes from the three manufacturers – Audi, Brabham and KTM..

Elio Ehrhart was the first to take full honors in the #18 LP Racing Audi, managing to hold off Pro-Am pole-setter Filip Sladek in the #15 KTM X-BOW for the first 20-minute session.

In Q2, Anders Fjordbach spoiled Stines Longino’s plans to return to pole position with an absolute flyer of the lap late in the second session, while Am title leader Henry Hassid secured his second pole position of the season in the class.

Earhart takes charge of Q1

Earlier in the day, Earhart, who had improved his time twice in free practice in the Am class, carried on that impressive form to take his fourth pole position of the season.

The LP Racing Audi charge set the bar early in the first 15-minute session, setting a best time of 1:35.174, and for a while the closest challenger seemed to be PK Carsport’s Nicolas Selens, who continued to close the deficit.

Filip Sladek’s late start and run put the #15 True Racing by Reiter Engineering KTM X-BOW in good stead with a time of 1:35.511, securing a spot on the front row alongside Earhart.

With Selens just 0.029s ahead of Sladecki’s time, PK Carsport Audi and current Pro-Am leaders start third with LP Racing guest driver Stefano Costantini impressing on debut to finish fourth.

The PK Carsport subsidiary Audi of Peter Gelinks held steady to complete the top six, just 0.041s ahead of Henry Hassid in the #67 Audi, who completes the top six.

Despite initially qualifying fourth, a pit lane speeding penalty relegated Klaus Ungerhofer and the #17 KTM X-BOW to seventh ahead of Kevin Vida in the Brabham Automotive Factory Racing BT63 GT2 concept car.

Aurelius Rusteiko in the Highclass Racing Audi and Chris Rosenberger in the #16 KTM X-BOW rounded out the top ten.

Fjordbach was late to take third pole in the Brabham

When the pro riders went out for the second qualifying session of the afternoon, Stefan Rosina set the bar first, but the #16 KTM X-BOW struggled from the start.

Stines Longin took his shot in the PK Carsport Audi, managing to overtake the KTM by 0.137s in all but an instant, before Rosina improved and regained the position. The pair continued to battle for first place, with Steines regaining the lead on his fifth flying lap.

Just as pole seemed certain, Fjordbach joined in late in the session to spoil the party for Stynes, setting a blistering 1:34.035 – the fastest GT2 lap of the weekend – to secure Brabham’s third pole position of the season.

While the Audi 11 PK Carsport completed the front row in race two, Rosina remained under pressure from High Class Racing’s Michael Vergers but held on for third by 0.002 seconds.

A strong performance from Bert Longino secured fifth fastest ahead of the two LP Racing Audis Pro-Am of Luca Pirie and Henry Hassid who took the Am pole. The KTM of Sehdi Sarmini and Hubert Trunkenpolz then rounded out the top ten.

The penultimate round of the Fanatec GT2 European Series will unfold in two 50-minute races around the Riccardo Tormo circuit at 11.20am and 5.20pm on Sunday.

The source. SRO Motorsports Group