Paul Ricard: Lamborghini on pole for season opener

The first Belgian on the grid is Maxime Martin, who, together with teammates Valentino Rossi and Raffaele Marciello, set the sixth fastest time in the WRT BMW #46. Just behind him we see the sister BMW #32 of Dries Vanthoor, Charles Weerts and Sheldon Van der Linde. The good news this morning from the Comtoyou camp is that, after a quick shipment of extra powertrains from Belgium, all four Aston Martins were ready for qualifying after yesterday’s breakdown. Pro car #007 (Drudi, Sorensen, Thiim) was good for the seventeenth fastest time, just ahead of the Mustang GT3 (#64), the copy of Proton Competition and Frédéric Vervisch, among others.

Gilles Magnus (Sainteloc Audi #25) starts later on day 21, the other Audi of the team (#26) with Ugo De Wilde, among others, finished 36th. Kobe Pauwels, John De Wilde and Job Van Uitert Comtoyou Aston Martin #11) qualified 41st, four places ahead of teammates Esteban Muth, Nicolas Baert and Sebastian Ogaard (Comtoyou Aston Martin #12). The fourth car, number 21 of Sam Dejonghe, Matisse Lismont and Charles Clark, was good for P52. Among the English cars we also saw the AF Corse Ferrari #52 of Louis and Jef Machiels and Andrea Bertolini, finished 47th. The race will take place this afternoon from 3 am.

Photo: Geert Franquet and Arne Simons