Mercedes-AMG Team Mann-Filter grabs pole for Paul Ricard GTWC EU opener

Credit: SRO/JEP

The No.48 Mann-Filter Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo will start the GT World Challenge Europe season opening race from pole, after convincingly grabbing pole position.

After topping Free Practice 1 and 2 it appeared likely that a Mercedes would top qualifying and the No.48 Mann-Filter entry, driven by Lucas Auer, Luca Stolz and Maro Engel is going to start the first race of the GT World Challenge Europe from pole.

An impressive second place overall and Gold class pole went to the No.58 Garage 59 McLaren driven by Tom Fleming, Louis Prette and Benjamin Goethe, surpassing even the Pro class team entry which was fourth fastest overall in the hands of Joseph Loake, Dean McDonald and Marvin Kirchoffer.

Comtoyou Racing's No.7 stood inbetween the McLarens in third overall and second in Pro, as the No. 18 sister car of Stroll, Merhi and Boya ended up 15th overall. Team WRT struggled with both its Pro entries, as the No.32 and No.46 cars qualified only 10th and 11th overall.

Credit: SRO/JEP

Garage 59 stormed to an early qualifying lead in the Pro and Gold classes in Q1, with the No.59 car ending up as fastest with a time of 1:53.450, followed up by the No.58 Gold entry, the No.7 Comtoyou Aston Martin and the No.48 Mann-Filter Mercedes.

This first qualifying session also featured a brief yellow flag midway through it, as the No.45 Silver class Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo of Rinaldi Racing spun, whilst being driven by Rafael Duran.

Q2 featured a brief delay early on, as red flags were shown with around 17 minutes remaining, due to the No.87 Winward Racing Mercedes grounding to a halt in Sector 1.

The session however was green-flagged shortly afterwards, with Luca Stolz delivering the fastest lap in the No.48 Mercedes with a 1:53.402, followed up by CSA Racing's No.111 Gold class entry and the No.46 Team WRT BMW.

Credit: SRO/JEP

Thus entering Q3 the battle for pole heated up, with the last of each team's drivers entering the track. Through steadlily good qualifying pace in the first two segments, the No.48 Mann-Filter Mercedes was in a prime place, as well as Comtoyou's No.7 and Garage 59's No.59.

Although Maro Engel struggled in Q3, ending up as only 12th fastest overall, he still maintained the best average qualifying time, claiming pole position by 0.054 seconds from the stunning No.58 Gold class McLaren from Garage 59 and the fine effort from the No.7 Aston Martin, with Nicki Thiim falling just shy of pole, after an impressive 1:53.294 best lap in Q3.

Fastest of all in the segment was the No. 17 GetSpeed Mercedes, driven by Fabian Schiller, who set the best time of the whole session with a 1:53.049.

Credit: SRO/JEP

In the Silver class, pole honours went to the No.21 Comtoyou Aston Martin of Kobe Pauwels, Sébastien Baud and Oliver Soderstrom with an average time of 1:54.167 and starting from Bronze class pole will be Herberth Motorsport's No. 91 Porsche of Robert Renauer, Huub van Eijndhoven and Ralf Bohn.

Qualifying Results - Overall

1st No.48 Mann Filter, Mercedes

2nd No.58 Garage 59, McLaren (Gold)

3rd No.7 Comtoyou Racing, Aston Martin

4th No.59 Garage 59, McLaren

5th No.80 Lionspeed GT, Porsche

6th No.17 GetSpeed, Mercedes

7th No.111 CSA Racing, McLaren (Gold)

8th No.3 Verstappen Racing, Mercedes

9th No.51 AF Corse, Ferrari

10th No.32 WRT, BMW