Three weeks after taking pole position at the 24 Hours of Spa, Marvin Kirchhöfer has successfully backed it up by securing his maiden GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup pole ahead of Race 2 at Misano.
Kirchhöfer, piloting the #59 Garage 59 McLaren GT3 Evo, set a 1:31.482 on his second flying lap of the 10-minute qualifying session, besting Raffaele Marciello’s early benchmark by 0.192 seconds.
It is the first Sprint Cup pole for a McLaren since Valencia 2021, when Ben Barnicoat was fastest for Jota.
“I’m a bit surprised,” Kirchhöfer admitted, after co-driver Benjamin Goethe qualified a lowly 26th for yesterday’s Race 1.
“Yesterday, we were nowhere, we had no pace so we tried a lot of changes. I feel like today as a team we did an impressive job. They gave me the car that I needed, that I asked for yesterday when we weren’t happy with it, so I’m really pleased.”
Race 1 winner Marciello came up just short of a record-extending 15h pole position on his return to the championship, but held on to second in the #46 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 Evo.
Third went to Maro Engel in the #48 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, ahead of Vincent Abril in the #51 AF Corse – Francorchamps Motors Ferrari 296 GT3 which secured pole position yesterday.
Fifth overall, and on Gold Cup pole position, was Gilles Magnus in the #25 Sainteloc Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II following a 1:31.828. Magnus will share the third row of the grid with his closest Gold Cup rival, the #69 Emil Frey Racing Ferrari of Thierry Vermeulen.
Sven Müller was seventh aboard the #96 Rutronik Racing Porsche 911 GT3.R (992), ahead of the Silver Cup pole sitting #21 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 Evo.
Comtoyou’s Kobe Pauwels was fastest in Group A, for Silver and Bronze Cup entries, with his 1:32.021 quick enough to hold on to eighth overall after the Pro and Gold Cup squads competed in Group B.
The #9 Boutsen VDS Mercedes-AMG and #35 Walkenhorst Motorsport Aston Martin completed the top 10, ahead of the Silver Cup points-leading #99 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi.
It was a difficult session for overall drivers’ championship leader Kelvin van der Linde, who ended up down in 15th in the #32 Team WRT BMW. With the closest rivals to himself and teammate Charles Weerts, the #48 Mercedes-AMG, starting for third, the #32 crew will have their work cut out to defend their seven-point lead in this afternoon’s race.
In Bronze, Kessel Racing’s Dustin Blattner held onto pole position despite losing the #74 Ferrari’s best lap to track limits. Blattner’s fastest legal time, a 1:33.124, put him 28th overall. Isaac Tutumlu Lopez in the #112 CSA Racing McLaren, and Marco Pulcini aboard the #93 Ziggo Sport Tempesta Ferrari, completed the Bronze Cup top three.
Race 2 at Misano takes place later today at 14:45 CEST
Image courtesy of SRO/JEP
