Team Belgium had a strong opening day yesterday in the FIA GT Nations Cup, which made its global debut headlining the Bapco Bahrain GT Festival at Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) in Sakhir.
After securing a double pole for both of the meeting’s Qualifying Races, the Belgian outfit were also ahead of the rest at the end of Qualifying Race One.
The FIA GT Nations Cup is the headlining event of the weekend. There was also plenty of action yesterday in the first-ever GT4 International Cup and the Bahrain Classic Challenge.
The GT4 International Cup saw Phoenix Racing and Sainteloc Junior Team share the day’s honours by each grabbing pole position ahead of their two Qualifying Races; while the duo of Oliver and Grahame Bryant captured pole for Race One in their 1964 Shelby Cobra for the Bahrain Classic Challenge.
Action continues today at the festival. All are welcome to attend.
Tickets cost BD5 apiece for adults and BD2.5 for teenagers aged 13 to 17. Those 12 years old and younger can attend for free. Ticket-holders will be able to watch the racing action from either the Main Grandstand or Batelco Grandstand, or both, and will also be able to roam the circuit at their leisure.
Belgian ace Charles Weerts steered his nation to first place in Qualifying Race One held along a brilliantly lit 5.412-kilometre Grand Prix track.
Weerts completed 27 laps in his Audi R8 LMS challenger and was an impressive 24.855 seconds ahead of the rest of the pack. Finishing in second place was Turkey’s Ayhancan Guven in a Mercedes-AMG GT3, while in third was Matteo Cressoni flying the Italian flag in a Ferrari 488 GT3 12.168s behind Guven.
The UK’s Christopher Froggatt, also in a Ferrari 488 GT3, was classified fourth; while Jim Pla of France in a Mercedes-AMG GT3 claimed fifth place overall. Rounding out the top eight were Ezequiel Perez Companc of Argentina in sixth, Deni Bulatov of Russia in seventh and Nico Bastian of Germany in eighth.
Ninth through 18th, respectively, were Hong Kong, Belarus, Sweden, China, Australia, Malaysia, Mexico, Japan and Thailand. Denmark were not classified.
Scheduled
Qualifying Race Two is scheduled for today at 1.15pm. Belgium’s other driver, Mike den Tandt, is set to take over the duties behind the wheel.
According to officials, the average of each team’s results from both Qualifying Races will determine the grid for the FIA GT Nations Cup’s Main Race, which will be the weekend’s feature event starting at 7.30pm tonight.
Meanwhile, Phoenix Racing claimed pole for the GT4 International Cup’s Qualifying Race One while Sainteloc took the leading grid position for Qualifying Race Two. Both Qualifying Races are to be held today.
Phoenix Racing’s Nicolaj Moller-Madsen and Milan Dontje claimed their starting place after clocking a fastest lap of 2:11.555 in their Audi R8 LMS GT4.