Spa 24 Hours Superpole: Ferrari Takes Pole as Drama Rocks the Field
Spa 24 Hours Superpole: Ferrari dominates as penalties shake up the Grid
The 2026 CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa has its pole sitter. The Spa 24 Hours Superpole delivered big drama on Friday afternoon. The #51 AF Corse Ferrari will start from pole position for this year’s 24 Hours of Spa after Alessio Rovera dominated all four Superpole sessions. It was a commanding display from start to finish.
Rovera Was Simply Untouchable
The #58 McLaren qualified second, and the #50 AF Corse Ferrari will start from third, making it a 1-3 start for AF Corse and Ferrari. A stunning result for the Italian squad.
Mattia Drudi was the first to get eliminated after a disappointing run for the #34 Aston Martin. Last year’s winner Mirko Bortolotti was also eliminated from making it to SP2, as nobody could beat Rovera’s 2:18.330.
The #3 Mercedes with Jules Gounon behind the wheel had to settle for fourth as the Mercedes cars struggled against the Ferraris and McLarens. That is the Mercedes-AMG Team Verstappen Racing entry, which had qualified strongly on Thursday before a dramatic night of penalties.
A Brand New Superpole Format
The 2026 CrowdStrike 24H of Spa introduced a completely revised qualifying and Superpole format. Organisers designed the new system to reduce traffic on Thursday evening while creating a more intense battle for pole position on Friday.
The 32 qualifying cars contested a revised three-stage Superpole format. First, 16 cars were eliminated following the opening ten-minute segment. Then the remaining competitors contested a seven-minute second session, reducing the field to eight. Finally, those eight cars took part in a shootout to determine pole position.
Midnight Drama: GetSpeed Thrown Out
The biggest story of Thursday night had nothing to do with fast laps. In a midnight bombshell at the 2026 24 Hours of Spa, Mercedes-AMG Team GetSpeed made a costly mistake after regular qualifying. The reason was illegal work on the brake during the Q3 session. The #17 GetSpeed Mercedes, which had secured the provisional fastest time, retroactively lost all lap times from Q3. That meant the squad around Maxime Martin, Maximilian Götz and Fabian Schiller was completely out of Friday’s Superpole.
The Mercedes was caught by the TV cameras as two mechanics removed the right rear brake and pulled a huge amount of stones and sand out of the car. An expensive and avoidable error.
GetSpeed were not the only team punished. Further decisions removed the #111 CSA Racing McLaren and #84 Eastalent Racing Audi from the classified qualifying results. Post-qualifying checks found that the CSA Racing McLaren did not comply with the event’s Balance of Performance ground-clearance requirement.
A Bonus for Motopark
Another Mercedes-AMG GT3 benefited from the chaos: the #20 of Levente Revesz, Christian Mansell, Yannick Mettler and Rui Andrade from Team Motopark. It had originally been left stranded in 33rd place by the tiny margin of 0.010 seconds. Due to GetSpeed’s exclusion, the Motopark quartet moved up to 32nd place and snatched the very last Superpole ticket.
Verstappen Racing and the Race Ahead
Mercedes-AMG Team Verstappen Racing brings one of the most decorated driver combinations in the Pro field. Dani Juncadella, Chris Lulham and Jules Gounon share the #3 Mercedes-AMG, creating a line-up that blends winning experience with emerging talent. You can read more about their qualifying journey here. Max himself is busy at the Austrian Grand Prix this weekend.
One notable restriction applies to the #80 Lionspeed GP Porsche. Although Lionspeed GP progressed to Superpole in second place, the #80 Porsche will start Saturday’s race from the pit lane. The team replaced the car’s engine, breaching Article 510 of the sporting regulations, and the stewards applied the standard pit-lane-start penalty. Feller, Preining and Buus could still contest Superpole, but any position earned would not translate into a conventional starting grid place.
What Comes Next: Race Day at Spa
The 2026 CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa starts on Saturday at 16:30 CEST. Ferrari goes in as the favourite after Rovera’s stunning pole. But 24 hours is a very long time at Spa-Francorchamps. The #51 has been comfortably the quickest across the four Superpole sessions and will be the ones to beat. However, the race is 24 hours long, and the 68 cars behind them will not be holding back. Don’t miss it.
