Updated: AF Corse Ferrari top Spa 24 qualifying, as Ferrari and Porsche on Bronze and Pro-Am poles
- Aaron Carroll
- Jun 25
- 8 min read
UPDATED: The No.17 GetSpeed Mercedes car had topped qualifying, however, the team were found to have performed work on the car after Q3 which was not permitted, meaning all of their lap times have been removed. They will start the race from the back of the grid, and the No.20 Motopark Mercedes will takes it's place in Superpole tomorrow.
The No.17 GetSpeed Mercedes-AMG has topped the newly structured qualifying session for the 2026 24 Hours of Spa.
The top 32 all went through to Superpole tomorrow, which is where the final grid will be decided. The No.74 Kessel Racing Ferrari and the No.86 High Class Racing Porsche have respectively taken the Bronze and Pro-Am class pole positions though, as all of their competitors were eliminated.
The cars knocked out of qualifying
No.20 Mercedes
No.45 Ferrari
No.23 McLaren
No.87 Mercedes
No.21 Aston Martin
No.54 Porsche
No.35 Aston Martin
No.555 McLaren
No.24 Corvette
No.30 BMW
No.992 BMW
No.222 Mercedes
No.9 Porsche
No.42 BMW
No.91 Porsche
No.86 Porsche
No.88 Audi
No.93 Porsche
No.70 Ferrari
No.177 Mercedes
No.28 Audi
No.999 Mercedes
No.0 Corvette
No.8 Porsche
No.123 Porsche
No.89 Porsche
No.991 BMW
No.97 Porsche
No.60 Ferrari
No.33 Mercedes
No.11 Aston Martin
No.914 Porsche
No.56 Aston Martin
No.79 Porsche
No.12 Mercedes
As it happened
Qualifying for the 24 Hours of Spa in 2026 isn't quite the most simple format, but for today we had 69 cars taking to the track attempting to make Superpole.
An updated format for this year kept the usual average lap time format seen in GT World Challenge Europe (GTWC EU), where each of the three or four drivers (depending on the entry) all try to set their best lap. The three/four lap times are then averaged out, and the quickest average goes top.
However, to avoid a mess of almost 70 cars on track trying to find a gap at the same time, each of the four sessions were split into three mini sessions - Group A, Group B and Group C. Each group was given 10 minutes in each of Qualifying 1, 2, 3 and 4, barring Group C.
Group C was made up of all the Pro class entries, which are mandated to have only three drivers, with all of the Gold, Silver, Bronze and Pro-Am having four. Therefore, Group C did not compete in Q1. So Group 1 led the field out for Q1, a group containing the Bronze and Pro-Am entries.
For this session, it was about the top 32 cars overall. All of those would go through to tomorrow's Superpole session, which has also been revised.
With only 10 minutes per session, it was absolutely crucial to get on it quickly and avoid track limits. But that was much easier said than done, with the cooler evening temperatures not aiding tyre warm-up. Eddie Cheever in the No.93 Ziggo Sport Ferrari proved that right away, losing his first lap to track limits in the final corner.
On his next go he went third though, behind Fourie Leyton in the No.991 Paradine BMW and the No.89 Lionspeed GP Porsche of Alex Fontana in second and first respectively.
That order stayed the same as those cars re-entered the pits and the Group B cars - Silver and Gold - came out onto track. In Pro-Am Custodio Toledo in the No.70 AF Corse Ferrari finished this session top, in 13th overall once the classes split.
The new format created an interesting dynamic, where the Silvers and Golds were on their out laps, and the Bronzes and Pro-Ams were on in laps, or some even on their final flyers.
Conrad Laursen in the No.71 Selected Car Racing Gold Ferrari took the top spot off Fontana, but with two minutes to go in the session, no one else could top the No.89's best time.
Salman Owega joined him, going quicker in the Silver No.5 Optimum McLaren entry, but that didn't last long as Laursen re-took top spot.
Owega lead the end of the session then, the only man in the 2:17s. Laursen was second, and the first of the Gold cars, with Fontana ending sixth at the top of Bronze, and Toledo's Ferrari dropping to 33rd.
It was a quick turnaround from Q1 into Q2, and Group A were back out again just a handful of minutes after the first session finished.
This is where the average lap times began to come into play. To avoid any confusion, the rest of this report will used the order decided by the best average of each car, not the drivers individual quickest times.
Early on Gabriele Piana in the No.87 Winward Mercedes went to the top of the average timing sheet, ahead of Ben Tuck in the No.74 Kessel Ferrari and Reece Barr in the No.222 2Seas Mercedes.
The red flag came out with three minutes left for Group A, with the No.8 Porsche of Reinhold Krahn got stuck in the gravel in the Fagnes chicane, after being tagged by the No.999 GetSpeed Mercedes of Jordan Boisson. Those two cars were 17th (eighth in Pro-Am) and 16th (seventh in Pro-Am) at the time of the incident.
From the incident, the No.999 was under investigation for the collision and speeding under the red flag, with the No.8 also under investigation for the latter.
As the session got underway and the cars got back on the track, Peter Dempsey in the No.70 Ferrari was slightly slow off the pit limiter, giving Tuck in the No.74 enough of an invitation to squeeze by on the grass on pit exit.
The drivers didn't even get a chance for one more flying lap, as the red flag came out again. The No.914 Razoon more than racing Porsche of Edward McDermott had a spin in the middle sector, with the No.28 Team RJN Audi of Simon Balcean finding himself with nowhere to go, joining the Porsche in the gravel.
That was the end of it for the Group A cars, with Group B's session effectively being cut 90 seconds short as none of them had set a lap by the time the red flag came out.
When we went green again, the Gold and Silver orders began to take some shape. Thomas Fleming in the No.58 Garage 59 McLaren went to the top, with Gilles Magnus in the No.10 Boutsen VDS Porsche getting his team into second.
Both of those cars only have three drivers, alongside a handful of other Gold Cup cars, but they were still part of Group B.
In Silver, the No.5 Optimum McLaren sat top, from sixth overall, Dante Rappagne having put them there on average.
Finally, it was time for the Pros to hit the circuit in anger for the first time, with Group A finishing out the second qualifying, but their first.
They quickly populated the top of the timing sheets, with Alessio Rovera in the No.51 and Lilou Wadoux in the No.50 making it a Ferrari and AF Corse 1-2 after the first runs for Group C.
Maxime Martin in the No.17 GetSpeed Mercedes was third, with Mattia Drudi putting the No.007 ComToYou Aston Martin fourth and Joseph Loake in the No.59 Garage 59 McLaren rounding out the top five.
The tyres seemed to be falling off quite quickly, so no one actually improved within the top 10.
Group A re-emerged onto the track to kick off Q3. It was Mathys Jaubert showing the pace in this session, bringing the No.74 Kessel Ferrari back to the top of the average times.
The No.60 JMW Motorsport Porsche of Tim Heinemann had an off into the gravel at the beginning of sector 3, getting ever so close to the wall, but just avoiding it.
So Jaubert topped Bronze after Q3, with the No.700 ComToYou Aston Martin of Sarah Bovy leading Pro-Am from fifth overall.
Louis Prette in the No.58 Garage 59 McLaren, his car top in Q3, but it was Simon Gachet in the No.111 CSA Racing McLaren of Simon Gachet with the quickest individual lap of the night, the first driver into the 2:16s.
He was only fourth on average though, with the No.71 Selected Car Ferrari was second in the hands of Simon Birch and Guilherme Olivera in the No.5 Optimum McLaren in third - and first in Silver.
In Group C, Tommasco Mosca kept the No.51 Ferrari at the top of the average times, but Arthur Leclerc let the No.50 slip down to fourth. Thomas Preining in the No.80 LionSpeed GP Porsche slipped into second, ahead of the No.59 Garage 59 McLaren of Dean MacDonald.
Fifth was Luca Stolz in the No.48 Winward Mercedes and the No.17 GetSpeed Mercedes of Max Gotz was sixth. The top six cars were all separated by just 0.081 on average heading into the final session.
In Q4 the focus was not on the top of the timing page though, it was on the imaginary elimination line in between P32 and P33.
There was a strange beginning to Q4A, with the light at the end of the pits going green very briefly, but that was then immediately followed by a red flag. A couple of cars had already crossed the white line though, so they had to drive around a lap at 80 km/h and re-join the back of the queue.
The session did finally get underway once again, with Dennis Marschall reassuring the No.74 Ferrari at the top of the average times in Bronze, with Dan Arrow in the No.87 Mercedes slotting into second. Nicolas Baert in the No.700 Aston Martin did similarly in Pro-Am, in seventh overall out of the Group A cars.
A few cars from Bronze and Pro-Am were already below 32nd position, so they were eliminated already. They were the No.89 Porsche, No.991 BMW, No.97 Porsche, No.60 Ferrari, No.33 Mercedes, No.11 Aston Martin, No.914 Porsche, No.56 Aston Martin, No.79 Porsche and No.12 Mercedes.
The light then went green for Group B, and at this stage, the headlights had come on and the track was plunging into the darkness.
Benjamin Goethe in the No.58 McLaren kept Garage 59 at the top of Gold, with Alex Aka in the No.99 Attempto Audi slotting into second. The No.5 Optimum McLaren led the times in Silver.
No Silvers or Golds dropped below P32 in this session, but a couple more Bronze and Pro-Ams did. The No.93 Porsche, No.70 Ferrari, No.177 Mercedes, No.28 Audi, No.999 Mercedes, No.0 Corvette, No.8 Porsche and the No.123 Porsche were all eliminated from contention as the final group took to the track.
Fabian Schiller put the No.17 GetSpeed Mercedes to the top, ahead of the No.51 Ferrari, the No.80 and No.2 Porsches, and the No.50 Ferrari rounding out the top five.
That didn't matter though, it was below P32 that mattered. The rest of the cars that were knocked out were the No.20 Mercedes, No.45 Ferrari, No.23 McLaren, No.87 Mercedes, No.21 Aston Martin, No.54 Porsche, No.35 Aston Martin, No.555 McLaren, No.24 Corvette, No.30 BMW, No.992 BMW, No.222 Mercedes, No.9 Porsche, No.42 BMW, No.91 Porsche, No.86 Porsche and No.88 Audi.
Two class pole positions were decided in this session though. The No.74 Kessel Racing Ferrari were the only Bronze crew to make it into the top 32, in 30th place, and therefore automatically have secured pole position.
In Pro-Am, the No.86 High Class Racing Porsche took pole from 48th position overall.
Superpole gets underway tomorrow at 15:05 local time (14:05 BST).
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