Marvin Kirchhöfer dominated qualifying for GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup Race 2 at Magny-Cours, as the German driver became the first repeat pole sitter of the season aboard the #59 Garage 59 McLaren GT3 Evo.
Kirchhöfer, running in Group B, set a 1:35.902 on his first flying lap to go fastest, and was still on provisional pole when he improved to a 1:35.508 as the checkered flag waved.
“I’m enjoying it right now, that’s three out of three!” said Kirchhöfer, who also claimed pole at his previous two GT World Challenge Europe outings at Misano and the 24 Hours of Spa.
“Once again, the team has given me the car that I needed. We struggled yesterday, we didn’t really have a lot of pace, and with all the hard work they’ve put in overnight, they gave me the car that I needed, and it’s a great result for us.”
Jordan Pepper was second in the Race 1-winning #63 GRT – Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2, 0.560 seconds behind.
Third went to Thierry Vermeulen in the #69 Emil Frey Racing Ferrari 296 GT3, who scored the team’s sixth Gold Cup pole position of the season with a 1:36.107. He’ll be joined on the second row of the grid by the #50 AF Corse – Francorchamps Motors Ferrari of Arthur Leclerc.
Leclerc’s teammate Vincent Abril qualified fifth in the #51 Ferrari, ahead of Sheldon van der Linde in the championship-leading #32 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 Evo.
Maxime Martin was seventh in the #9 Boutsen VDS Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, with the #35 Walkenhorst Motorsport Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 Evo, #111 CSA Racing McLaren and #14 Emil Frey Racing Ferrari completing the top 10.
The second-best Gold Cup runner, the #25 Sainteloc Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II of Gilles Magnus, qualified 12th.
It was a difficult session for two of the main title protagonists, as both Rutronik Racing’s Sven Müller and Winward Racing’s Maro Engel fell afoul of track limits. Muller’s #96 Porsche 911 GT3.R (992) will start Race 2 from 13th, with the #48 Mercedes-AMG of Engel lining up 16th on the grid.
Comtoyou Racing’s strong form in the Silver Cup continued, as Jamie Day claimed a commanding pole position in 17th overall. Day set a 1:37.037 aboard the #21 Aston Martin to top Group A, 0.486 seconds ahead of Cesar Gazeau’s #10 Boutsen VDS Mercedes-AMG.
The point for pole has tripled Day, Kobe Pauwels and Comtoyou’s lead in the Silver Cup standings, with them now heading both the #10 Mercedes-AMG and #99 Audi by 1.5 points.
In the Bronze Cup, Dustin Blattner scored his third pole position of the season aboard the #74 Kessel Racing Ferrari. Blattner set a 1:38.003 on his final flying lap, critically putting multiple Silver Cup entries between himself and his nearest Bronze rival, the #81 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG of Rinat Salikhov.
With the #89 Lionspeed GP Porsche of Bashar Mardini qualifying ninth, this afternoon presents a golden opportunity for Blattner and Dennis Marschall to retake the championship lead.
Group A was interrupted by a single Red Flag after Jef Machiels went off on the exit of Turn 1 in the #52 AF Corse – Francorchamps Motors Ferrari with four minutes to go. This impacted several teams’ run plans, with only eight cars having set a time at this point in the session. Day’s time, notably, was one of the laps completed before the Red Flag.
The field has decreased to 38 cars for today’s race, following the withdrawal of the #64 HRT Ford Performance Mustang GT3 and #112 CSA Racing McLaren. Both vehicles were involved in accidents in Race 1 and sustained too much damage to be repaired in time to race today.
In the case of the #112 McLaren, driver Isaac Tutumlu López was also diagnosed with two broken ribs.
Race 2 at Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours begins at 15:15 CEST.
Image courtesy of SRO/JEP
