Sarah Bovy qualifying masterclass puts Iron Dames on pole for 6H of Spa

Sarah Bovy was again the class of the field in qualifying and dominated both the Q1 and Hyperpole sessions at her home track in Spa Francorchamps, securing the first FIA WEC pole position for Lamborghini.

Photo credits: Iron Dames

Sarah Bovy continues to be the class of the field in qualifying - be it in FIA World Endurance Championship or in European Le Mans Series - where she already claimed two pole positions out of two this year. With a stunning performance on Friday at Spa Francorchamps, the home hero dominated the Q1 session and then again had no competition in Hyperpole, securing the team's first pole in WEC with the Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 - and indeed the first for the Italian marque.

Bovy has now secured pole positions in the World Endurance Championship with three different brands - two in the Ferrari 488 GTE (2022) and three with the Porsche 911 RSR-19 (2023). It is the team's second pole position with Lamborghini machinery, following the combined times in GT World Challenge Europe Bronze cup last year at Nürburgring.

Iron Dames' start of the season in FIA WEC has been an unfortunate yet promising one, with plenty of improvements made with the #85 Huracan. An eighth place at Lusail in Qatar was an encouraging sign, and more steps forward were made at Imola - although an accident at the start caused some recurring technical issues early on in the race that eventually ended their race in the first hour.

The positive trend seems to have carried onto the third round at Spa Francorchamps - coming just one week after an unlucky 5H of Le Castellet in European Le Mans Series, where the all-female trio dominated most part of the race only to finish fourth due to an ill-timed safety car. At the legendary Spa Francorchamps track, Sarah Bovy, Michelle Gatting and Rahel Frey - who returns behind the wheel of the #85 machine due to Doriane Pin's clash with the start of the FRECA season - showed impressive speed in the practice sessions: a 2:21.886 lap by Gatting put them fourth fastest in the LMGT3 field in FP1, before Bovy clocked a 2:21.372 in FP2, ending Thursday second fastest.

On Friday morning, the magenta Lamborghini continued to make great strides in FP3: it would be Rahel Frey to set the car's fastest lap in 2:21.208, again finishing second fastest in class. Next up was qualifying for home racer Sarah Bovy - and the bronze-rated driver once again did not disappoint.

Sarah soon snatched the top spot after the first flying lap, leading by almost one full second the #78 Akkodis Lexus, before Team WRT's Ahmad Al Harthy could get closer. Tom Van Rompuy (TF Sport Corvette) and Aliaksandr Malykhin (Manthey Porsche) managed to improve, but one lap later, Bovy was again one second clear on top of the timing screens.

Iron Dames opted to pit Bovy to save tyres for Hyperpole, having secured a fast enough time to go through the second session with the fastest time.

The top ten progressed to the 12-minute Hyperpole - but the session was soon red flagged for a monster crash by Aliaksandr Malykhin's Manthey PureRxcing Porsche on top of Raidillon. The driver was reportedly fine and was transferred to a local hospital for precautionary checks as per procedure, and once the track repairs were completed the session could resume for the final 7 minutes.

United Autosport's Josh Caygill took provisional pole - but it wouldn't be long until Sarah Bovy reclaimed the top spot by two tenths, with two minutes left on the clock. Nobody could dethrone the Belgian in the closing minutes and, with a 2:20.755 lap, she claimed the historic first pole position for Lamborghini at the top of world endurance racing.

The #95 United Autosport McLaren will start second, with the #46 Team WRT BMW and the #91 Manthey Porsche sharing the second row.

The 6 Hours of Spa Francorchamps will get underway on Saturday at 13:00 local time.