UPDATE: The #32 Team WRT has lost all of its lap times from Qualifying 2 due to being overboost by 10mbar several times during the session. Team WRT informed the stewards that this was due to a mistake when establishing atmospheric pressure.
As such, the #7 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin of Nicki Thiim has inherited pole position, with the #32 Team WRT BMW now set to start Race 2 from the back of the grid.
It is a maiden Sprint Cup pole for both Thiim and Comtoyou, and Aston Martin’s first since Misano 2023.
Team WRT’s Kelvin van der Linde stormed to pole position for Race 2 of the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup at Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours this morning, aboard the championship-leading #32 BMW M4 GT3 Evo.
The BMW M factory driver set a 1:36.012 on his first flying lap, putting him over half a second clear of the rest of the field. Although that gap was subsequently reduced, van der Linde himself was also able to improve, setting a 1:35.927 to claim his first Sprint Cup pole.
It’s a strong rebound for the Belgian squad, which saw its drivers’ championship lead halved yesterday after finishing down in seventh.
“The track’s rubbered in a bit more, which generally tends to suit our car,” van der Linde commented. “Thanks to the team, they really did a great job overnight. We did a couple of changes.”
Nicki Thiim qualified second aboard the #7 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 Evo, 0.227 seconds back, with Christopher Haase third in the #84 Eastalent Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II.
Eastalent will be hoping this result signals a change of form in its maiden Sprint Cup campaign, with the team having finished in the points on only one occasion so far this season.
Garage 59’s Marvin Kirchhöfer qualified fourth in the #59 McLaren GT3 Evo, ahead of the #80 Lionspeed GP Porsche 911 GT3 R (992.2) of Ricardo Feller.
CSA Racing earned Gold Cup pole position, with Arthur Rougier turning around a difficult weekend so far for the home outfit by qualifying sixth overall aboard the #111 McLaren, with a 1:36.361.
“It’s been a really tough weekend for us so far with technical issues on the first day,” Rougier said.
“[We were] struggling with the balance as a consequence, lacking a bit of mileage this weekend to find back the pace. All the guys worked really hard overnight to give me a good quali car today. We’ve struggled all weekend putting the tyres in the window, and it looks like in qualifying we found something.”
Seventh went to the #96 Rutronik Racing Lamborghini Temerario GT3 of Patric Niederhauser, ahead of the top two finishers in Race 1. Daniel Juncadella was eighth in the #3 Mercedes-AMG Team Verstappen Racing AMG GT3 EVO, with Arthur Leclerc ninth aboard the #50 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo.
The #2 Boutsen VDS Porsche of Dorian Boccolacci rounded out the top 10, ahead of the #48 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG of Maro Engel.
Romain Andriolo made it a CSA Racing 1-2 in the Gold Cup, qualifying 12th in the #555 McLaren, ahead of the #58 Garage 59 McLaren of Louis Prette.
It was a disappointing session for Valentino Rossi, who qualified 22nd overall in the #46 Team WRT after losing multiple lap times to track limits, whilst Dylan Pereira failed to record a valid lap time aboard the #99 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi and as such will start Race 2 from the back of the field.
The #30 Team WRT BMW extended its championship lead in the Silver Cup, as Ignacio Montenegro claimed pole with a 1:36.769.
The Argentinian was 0.201 seconds faster than the #21 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin of Arthur Dorison, with Aurelien Panis third in the #6 GetSpeed Team Bartone Bros Mercedes-AMG.
And in the Bronze Cup, Peter Dempsey claimed a comfortable pole aboard the #93 Ziggo Sport Tempesta Racing Porsche, with a 1:37.387 placing him 26th overall.
Charles Dawson had the pace to challenge for pole position in the #222 2 Seas Motorsport Mercedes-AMG, but lost all of his laps due to track limits. It initially appeared as if the Briton had made his final attempt, a 1:37.659 good enough for second, stick, but this lap was deleted post-session.
This meant that Dustin Blattner’s #74 Kessel Racing Ferrari qualified second, ahead of Rinat Salikhov’s Race 1-winning #87 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG.
Race 2 at Magny-Cours is scheduled to start at 15:30 CEST.
Image courtesy of SRO/JEP
