Porsche came to the fore in this afternoon's pre-qualifying run at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, with a pair of ROWE Racing 911 GT3 R machines among the top-three at the session's end.
The #98 car was quickest, with Mathieu Jaminet posting a best effort of 1m44.839s to establish an unmatchable benchmark. Next up was Dries Vanthoor in the #2 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT machine, 0.112s shy of top spot. The #99 ROWE Porsche completed the top-three, with Matt Campbell recording a 1m45.156s to cap an excellent session for the German squad.
A pair of Mercedes-AMG cars rounded out the top-five, with the title-chasing #4 Black Falcon machine leading the #88 AKKA ASP entry. Both teams also showed well this morning, while the German marque has won at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in each of the past three seasons.
Sixth overall was the Silver Cup pace-setter, Michele Beretta, who posted a 1m45.476s at the wheel of the #555 Orange1 FFF Racing Lamborghini. The #52 AF Corse Ferrari led Pro-Am, with Andrea Bertolini recording the 14th best time overall.
Miguel Ramos ensured that the #77 Barwell Lamborghini was quickest in the Am Cup class, but the session was far from trouble-free as Adrian Amstutz sustained damage that ended the British squad's participation early. A total of 45 cars were on-track during the session, the exception being the #74 RAM Racing Mercedes-AMG that led the Pro-Am class in this morning's free-practice. A single red flag during the opening stages was the sole interruption and resulted in only a short stoppage.
The main action takes place tomorrow, with qualifying beginning at 09.30 and setting the grid for the season-deciding three-hour race. This gets underway at 15.00 and, like qualifying, will be streamed live on the Blancpain GT Series website and social media channels.
> Pre-Qualifying Results