Lestrup Racing Team seals TCE pole on 24H SERIES return at Hockenheim - live 13.05.2022: Lestrup Racing Team has made an impressive return to the 24H SERIES, securing overall TCE pole position for this weekend’s Hankook 12H HOCKENHEIMRING with an average time almost half a second quicker than TCR Teams’ championship leader, BBR.

Lestrup Racing Team has made an impressive return to the 24H SERIES, securing overall TCE pole position for this weekend’s Hankook 12H HOCKENHEIMRING with an average time almost half a second quicker than TCR Teams’ championship leader, BBR.



The Lestrup Racing Team Audi RS3 LMS TCR (#120, Emil Sällberg / Marcus Fluch / Oliver Söderström / Andreas Bäckman) last competed at a 24H SERIES event at the Hankook 24H DUBAI, and set the fastest overall TCE lap around the 4.574km Hockenheimring in one of this afternoon’s three 15-minute qualifying sessions. Its second and third proved quick enough to keep the Swedish team’s new Audi RS 3 LMS on pole position for its debut.
 


“I have a good team behind me!” Oliver Söderström explained to radiolemans.com’s Chris Dawes. “It’s a new car for the whole team and we’re still learning a lot, so we still have some work to do. But it was a good qualifying. This race is going to be all about fuel saving and managing the tyres, so let’s hope we’re as good at doing that as we have been so far!”
 


Though TCR Teams’ championship leader BBR (#159, Chariya Nuya / Kantadhee Kusiri / Kantasak Kusiri / Munkong Sathienthirakul) set two of the three fastest TCE laps during qualifying, a poorly timed Code 60 during Q1 means the CUPRA Leon Competición TCR will start behind Lestrup Racing on the front row. Fellow championship contender Wolf-Power Racing (#116, Jasmin Preisig / Ivars Vallers / Marcus Menden) will start 3rd with its Audi RS 3 LMS TCR.
 



Despite coming incredibly close to hitting the tyre barriers at turn one during the final part of qualifying, the Wimmer Werk Motorsport CUPRA TCR (#124, Peter Gross / Dominik Haselsteiner / Günther Wiesmeier / Daniel Lemmerhofer) made an impressive start to its 24H SERIES comeback with the 4th fastest time in TCE, just ahead of TCX class polesitter, the Xwift Racing Ligier JS2 R (#221, Pieter Denys / Tim de Borle / Steven Dewulf).
 



The GSR Motorsport Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR SEQ (#105, Ernesta Globytė / Rokas Kvedaras / Mindaugas Liatukas) will line-up 6th ahead of Hankook 12H SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS TCE winner Holmgaard Motorsport (#102, Magnus Holmgaard / Jonas Holmgaard / Roy Edland / Martin Vedel Mortensen), the latter of which makes its first series start with a new CUPRA Leon Competición TCR this weekend at Hockenheim.



Lestrup Racing’s second entry, a Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR (#110, Mats Olsson / Peter Fahlström / Stefan Nilsson / Christian Axelsson), will start behind both in 8th
 


Shortly after Porsche Lorient Racing’s first incident in Q1, Valluga (#205, Bradley Ellis / Leonidas Loucas / Rhea Loucas) suffered its own off-track moment at turn 12, ending the session buried in the gravel. Though the Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 CS was unable to rejoin for Q2 but did manage to set a time in Q3 to secure the second fastest TCX average time.
 




The green flag for the 2022 Hankook 12H HOCKENHEIMRING is scheduled to fly on Saturday 14 May at 13.50 hrs local time, the race continuing until 19.55 hrs that evening. After CREVENTIC’s traditional overnight ‘intervention’, the race will resume at 14.00 hrs on Sunday 15 May and will run uninterrupted thereafter until the chequered flag is flown at 19.55 hrs.


The action will be live with commentary from radiolemans.com on the official 24H SERIES YouTube channel. Regular updates will also be published on Twitter (@24HSeries), Facebook (24H Series) and Instagram (24H Series). Further information can be found at www.24hseries.com




Creventic BV also photo