AF Corse, Francorchamps Motors has taken pole position at Monza after a dominant display in qualifying for the penultimate round of the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup season.
Alessio Rovera and Vincent Abril both topped their individual sessions in the #51 Ferrari 296 GT3, before a late time from Jordan Pepper in the #163 GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2 prevented Alessandro Pier Guidi from making it a clean sweep.
“To be entirely honest I underestimated the pressure of being in the #51 car in the home race with all the Italian fans,” admitted Abril, who has switched from the team’s #71 296 GT3 to the #51 for this weekend.
“You can prepare as much as you want at home but nothing comes close. I’m very thankful to the team for how they prepared for the weekend. Alessio and Alessandro are two amazing drivers to be aside.”
The #51 Ferrari set an average lap time of 1:44.911, ending the session 0.172 seconds quicker than the championship-leading #7 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 Evo, which will join them on the front row after a consistent qualifying from Mattia Drudi, Marco Sorensen and Nicki Thiim.
The #48 Mercedes-AMG Team MANN-Filter Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo and the #32 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3, which are split by just two points in the overall GT World Challenge Europe standings, will share the second row of the grid, ahead of the #22 Schumacher CLRT Porsche 911 GT3.R (992) and Pepper’s #163 Huracan.
The second session was red-flagged with under four minutes to go when Maxime Oosten went off at the exit of Ascari in the #98 ROWE Racing BMW M4 GT3. Unable to set a time in the final part of Qualifying, last season’s Monza winning entry is set to start from 52nd this year.
The stoppage almost proved costly for Maxime Martin in the #46 Team WRT M4 GT3, who joined the session late and was yet to get a representative time on the board, but the Belgian driver was able to set a competitive lap once the session resumed and the car ended up qualifying seventh. The #46 will share the fourth row of the grid with the #34 Walkenhorst Motorsport Vantage AMR GT3 Evo.
Garage 59 took a third pole position of the season in the Bronze Cup, with Adam Smalley, Miguel Ramos and Louis Prette combining to qualify their #188 McLaren GT3 Evo an impressive ninth overall. ROWE Racing’s #998 M4 GT3 rounded out the top 10.
Matisse Lismont, Job van Uitert and Charles Clark qualified 13th overall and took the Gold Cup pole position in Comtoyou Racing’s #21 Vantage AMR GT3 Evo, despite not topping the class in any individual session. GRT Grasser Racing Team’s #19 Huracan GT3 Evo2 of Artem Petrov, Mateo Llarena and Baptiste Moulin was fastest in the Silver Cup and will start from 16th overall.
It was a difficult qualifying for Tresor Attempto Racing’s #99 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II, which sits second in the championship. Christopher Haase, Alex Aka and Ricardo Feller will start from 21st on the grid. Also struggling was Proton Competition’s Ford Mustang GT3, which ended up in 38th.
The penultimate race of the season begins at 15:30 CEST and can be watched on the GT World YouTube channel.
Image courtesy of GT World Challenge Europe/JEP
