By Tarek Ramchani
The Blancpain Endurance Series action has started today at the Paul Ricard, the French circuit is hosting the third round of the 2015 season.
The Audi squad had an unlucky pre-qualifying session this afternoon. The teams pushed hard against world class rivals representing a great selection of prestigious brands . In the end a single Audi R8 LMS car inside the Top 10 overall.
The fastest Audi entry was the #8 new Audi R8 LMS from Audi Sport Team WRT. The car was shared by an all-Audi driver line-up, team's regular Laurens Vanthoor joined by Mike Rockenfeller and René Rast. The three drivers set a best time of 1:58.057.
The #35 Audi R8 LMS from Sainteloc Racing narrowly missed the Top 10. The car in the hands of Gregory Guilvert, Edoardo Mortara and a debuting in the series Adrien Tambay was twelfth fastest.
Best of the ISR Racing Audis was the #75 R8 LMS ultra with Filipe Salaquarda, Marco Bonanomi and Frédéric Vervisch, they were seventeenth fastest.
The second new Audi R8 LMS was a position behind. The Phoenix Racing run #5 Audi R8 LMS was eighteenth with Christopher Haase, Christopher Mies and Marcel Fässler.
Paul Ricard pre-qualifying results
Teams and drivers will be back tomorrow for the qualifying session and the 6-hour night endurance race.
Photo credit: Blancpain GT Series
