Verstappen Racing on pole for GTWC Magny-Cours race one, Valentino Rossi third
- Owen Bradley
- 1 hour ago
- 2 min read
The No.3 Verstappen Racing Mercedes squad stormed to pole position in qualifying for race one of the GT World Challenge at Magny-Cours, with Jules Gounon putting the Mercedes ahead of the No.222 2Seas Motorsport Mercedes. Meanwhile, MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi qualified in third position.
The margins were tight in qualifying at Magny-Cours, with Gounon beating the No.222 2Seas Motorsport car by just under two tenths of a second. Max Hesse put the No.46 Team WRT BMW into third place, just an additional couple of tenths behind the 2Seas Mercedes.
The Magny-Cours circuit is a fast and flowing track which drivers fly through in around a minute and a half. Due to the narrow but fast flowing nature of the track, drivers are rewarded for bravery on the brakes and for managing the load going through their tyres, with some corners proving to be a challenge on the Pirelli tyres.
The championship leading No.48 Winward Racing squad consisting of Lucas Auer and Maro Engel ended up qualifying in fourth position, just a few hundredths behind the No.46 squad. Rounding out the top five, Fabian Schiller put the No.12 Getspeed Team Dubai Mercedes into fifth place by another couple of hundredths.
With four Mercedes' inside the top five, it appears that the Magny-Cours circuit favours the German manufacturer. With a medium-long front straight, a quick left followed by a long but fast right-hander which links to a long back straight, the opening section of the circuit certainly plays to the strengths of the Mercedes, with the rest of the lap also a relative breeze for the Mercedes thanks to their impressive cornering and aerodynamic package.
Further down the grid, Arthur Leclerc and Thomas Neubauer qualified in ninth place aboard the No.50 Ferrari AF Corse, as they continue to push hard in the Sprint Cup after winning at Brands Hatch earlier in the season.
The first race gets underway later today at 21:05 local time in France, before the second qualifying and second race on Sunday.
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