Raffaele Marciello will start tomorrow’s FIA GT World Cup Qualification Race in Macau from pole position, after setting the quickest time during Qualifying today in his #1 Toro Racing BMW M4 GT3.
The Swiss’ 2:16.509 was just 0.053 quicker than Dries Vanthoor, who put the #32 WRT BMW second, locking out the front row for the Bavarian brand.
The second row will be filled by Maro Engel in the #130 GruppeM Racing Mercedes and Ferrari Hypercar driver Antonio Fuoco, who put his #83 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 fourth.
Engel went on a late charge to try and snatch pole from Marciello but lost out to a red flag which ended the session early.
The stoppage was called for an incident at the exit of Mandarin Bend. Luca Engstler lost the rear end of his Team Engstler Lamborghini Huracan and veered into the barriers on driver’s right, heavily damaging the car.
Luca Engstler, the driver of the #8 Liqui Moly Team Engstler Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo 2, had an accident on the exit of the Mandarin corner in the closing moments of the FIA GT World Cup qualifying session held as part of the Macau Grand Prix. The driver remained conscious and… pic.twitter.com/RAessIiHrU
— FIA (@fia) November 15, 2024
Following the incident, the FIA released a statement confirming that “the driver remained conscious and has been taken to a local hospital for precautionary checks.”
It is not yet clear whether the car will take any further part in the weekend.
That was one of three significant incidents in the session. The first was an off at Turn 3 for Laurin Heinrich, the second a hit for Jules Gounon, who limped back to the pits with significant damage to the his #99 Craft Bamboo Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo’s left side.
The session had just four minutes left to run when the final incident occurred and did not restart.
Augusto Farfus ended up fifth in his #89 KRC BMW, while Sheldon van der Linde slotted in sixth, making it four M4s in the top six, all setting times within three-and-a-half-tenths of each other.
The fastest Porsche 911 GT3 R 992s would slot in seventh and eighth, with Laurens Vanthoor leading Alessio Picariello with times seven-tenths and 1.3 seconds off pole respectively.
The top 10 was completed by a pair of Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo 2s – Ricardo Feller’s #36 from Audi Sport Asia and Christopher Haase’s #33 from Phantom Global Racing.
Tomorrow’s 12-lap Qualification Race is set to get underway at 13:50 local time.
Image courtesy of BMW
