GTWC | Ferrari and Mercedes take pole at Brands Hatch

Ferrari and Mercedes will start from the absolute Pole Position at Brands Hatch, where Qualifying to define the starting grids for the first two rounds of the Sprint Cup of the GT World Challenge Europe has recently concluded.

Huge battles in all categories for the lead, with Ben Green getting his hands on first place for tomorrow’s opening race, while we’ll see Lucas Auer at the pole for the second.

Q1: Green mocks Drudi

The assignment of Pole in Q1 was a matter of hundredths, with an excellent Green who found the best lap when it seemed to be done for Mattia Drudi.

The standard bearer of Emil Frey Racing followed the Ferrari of his teammate Giacomo Altoè, making the most of the Venetian’s ‘shot’ and arriving at the finish line in 1’22″768 with the 296 #14, overtaking by 0″ 016 Drudi’s Aston Martin #7, who will however have a good chance starting from the front row.

Behind the Comtoyou Racing native from Romagna is the BMW #32 of Dries Vanthoor (Team WRT), who will have Tom Gamble at his side with the McLaren #159 of Garage 59, while he is bitter about the Mercedes, finding himself only fifth with the AMG #48 of Maro Engel (Winward Racing) after having stood out in the previous sessions.

Altoè had also managed to put his #69 Ferrari in the lead mid-session, then dropped to sixth with the Audis of Christopher Haase (#88 Tresor Attempto Racing) and Lucas Legeret (#111 CSA Racing) behind him, the latter in Pole Position for the Gold Cup Class ahead of the Ferrari #51 of Charlie Eastwood (Racing Team Turkey-AF Corse), ninth overall.

The overall Top10 is completed by the Audi #99 of Tresor Attempto Racing in the hands of Alex Aka, behind whom we have Calan Williams, author of the Pole Position in the Silver Cup Class with the BMW #30 of WRT.

In this category, second place goes to Aurélien Panis in the Mercedes #10 of Boutsen VDS (14th), followed by Thomas Fleming in the Ferrari #71 of AF Corse (16th).

In the Gold Cup, third place goes to the Audi #6 of Max Hofer (Team Engstler) who keeps behind the #25 of Paul Evrard (Saintéloc Racing) and the Aston Martin #21 of James Jakes (Comtoyou Racing). , in 15th, 21st and 25th position respectively.

In a ranking that is as always very short with 16 cars in 1″, Valentino Rossi gets the 13th time at the last minute, having had to fight first with a time trial canceled due to track limits on the initial flying lap and then with traffic, finding at least the seventh row with the BMW #46 of WRT, behind the Mercedes #9 of Maximilian Gotz (Boutsen VDS).

Q2: Auer on his last breath

Even in Q2 the fight was only resolved in the very last laps, also because the 10′ session was interrupted with 3’36” to go due to Matisse Lismont going off the track, crashing into the wall with the Aston Martin #21 of Comtoyou .

Once the green flag waved, the assault on the record rewarded a perfect Auer in setting a time of 1’22″393 which allowed him to lead the #48 Winward Racing Mercedes 0″143 ahead of the #9 of Jules Gounon (Boutsen VDS ), who also managed to lower his own limit obtained previously.

Also on this occasion, many times were canceled due to track limits and third was taken by Thierry Vermeulen in the Ferrari #69 of Emil Frey Racing, followed by the McLaren #159 of Benjamin Goethe and the Audi #99 of Ricardo Feller (Tresor Attempto ).

Eliseo Donno deserves open applause, who preferred not to enter the track at the end and from 3rd drops to 6th, but firmly on Pole for the Silver Class at the wheel of the AF Corse Ferrari #71 with which he gets only 0″ 4 from the leader and ahead of the 296 #14 of Konsta Lappalainen (Emil Frey Racing).

Eighth place for Gilles Magnus with the Audi #25 giving Saintéloc Racing Pole in the Gold Cup Class, while the Top10 also includes the revived Porsche #96 of Rutronik Racing with Sven Muller on top and the BMW #32 of Charles Weerts (Team WRT ), with his teammate Maxime Martin not exceeding the 11th fastest time at the wheel of the #46 M4.

Returning to Silver, the others are very far behind because you have to drop to 14th place to find the Aston Martin #12 of Charles Clark (Comtoyou Racing), followed closely by the Mercedes #10 of Cesar Gazeau (Boutsen VDS) and the Audi #26 of Hugo Cook (Saintéloc), as well as the BMW #30 of Sam De Haan (WRT) and the Ferrari #52 of AF Corse in the hands of Jef Machiels.

In Gold there was a trio of Audis thanks to Luca Engstler (#6 Team Engstler) and Simon Gachet (#111 CSA Racing) behind Magnus. Top 5 in the category for the Ferrari #51 of Salih Yoluç (Racing Team Turkey) and Lismont, but both at the back of the grid.

Sunday’s program includes Race 1 at 12.00 pm Italian time, followed by Race 2 at 5.00 pm.

#71 AF Corse, Ferrari 296 GT3: Eliseo Donno, Thomas Fleming

Photo by: SRO

RANKING Q1

#9 Boutsen VDS, Mercedes AMG GT3: Jules Gounon, Maximilian Gotz

Photo by: SRO

RANKING Q2