Blancpain Endurance Series, Navarra - Qualifying Report Hexis Racing will be starting from pole position in the final round of the Blancpain Endurance Series at the Circuit de Navarra today. In the qualifying session on Sunday morning Fred Makowiecki blew away the opposition and only needed one flying lap to set the fastest lap time. Qualifying started at 10 o’clock and the Belgian Audi Club Team WRT cars were the fastest in the opening minutes of the session. After five minutes it was Christopher Mies who had set the fastest time, followed by teammate Oliver Jarvis and Davide Rigon in the Kessel Racing Ferrari. But Jarvis improved his time and moved up to take provisional pole.?In the final minutes the top three kept changing, with Dino Lunardi moving the Sainteloc Racing Audi R8 LMS ultra into third place with two minutes remaining, before Stef Dusseldorp (Hexis Racing) pushed him to fourth. The Marc VDS Racing Team BMW of Bas Leinders didn’t play a role in Q1. Just before Q2 got underway it started to rain and the race director declared a wet track. The McLarens seemed to like the conditions though and soon Andy Soucek (Boutsen Ginion Racing) and Alvaro Parente (Hexis) were first and second. Sainteloc Racing’s Quintois had a scary moment when he was pushed off the track by ProSpeed Competition’s Xavier Maassen, but he was able to continue after spinning his Audi.
With conditions improving a little bit Mathias Lauda and then Daniel Brown improved the fastest lap time, but as soon as the McLarens completed their next lap it was a McLaren 1-2-3 again, with Parente leading his Hexis Racing teammate in GT1 World Gregoire Demoustier. The battle for pole position heated up in Q3. Peter Kox was the first in the Blancpain-Reiter Lamborghini, but soon after it was Stéphane Ortelli in the WRT-Audi who set an even quicker lap time. That time didn’t last long as both Kox and Frank Kechele were on even faster laps and they pushed the Audi driver down to third.
WRT teammates Ortelli and Albuquerque swapped positions twice, then followed by Gregory Guilvert taking second position. But soon the McLarens restored the order and after Duncan Tappy had set the fastest lap time, four tenths slower than Parente’s time in Q2, it was Makowiecki’s turn. On his first flying lap he set a 1:36.827 and none of the other drivers was able to beat that time. Peter Kox took second place just before the end of the session, but as the chequered flag came out it was the Hexis Racing McLaren that topped the timesheets. Maxime Martin set the fifth fastest time for Marc VDS Racing Team, although a 10-place grid penalty will see the team starting from 15th on the grid. Belgian Audi Club Team WRT was sixth fastest and will start from fifth on the grid - although we haven't seen a final grid yet... MtC | 
