Mercedes responded to Porsche in Pre-Qualifying for the GT World Challenge Europe at Hockenheim, where the Sprint Cup protagonists faced the final 60 minutes of testing for today, in preparation for Qualifying and the Race which will take place between Saturday and Sunday.
Apart from a brief stop to clear debris from the track, there were no major interruptions and the best time was achieved by Lucas Auer at the wheel of the #48 Winward Racing AMG in 1’39″257, making up for having closed the morning session in second place behind the #96 Rutronik Racing 911, which this time stopped in tenth place, almost 0.7″ from the top.
0″146 is the delay suffered by the already in top form Lamborghini #6 of Team Engstler/OneGroup, which continues to dictate the law in the Gold Cup by finishing second overall and keeping behind a couple of other PRO cars, namely the BMW #32 of Team WRT and the Ferrari #69 of Emil Frey Racing, separated by just 3 thousandths.
#69 Emil Frey Racing, Ferrari 296 GT3: Thierry Vermeulen, Giacomo Altoè
Photo by: SRO
Also confirming their form are the #25 Audi of Saintéloc Racing – second Gold and in the Top5 – and the #78 Lamborghini of Barwell Motorsport, sixth and leader of the Bronze Cup class.
Between seventh and ninth place we find a trio of Ferraris: the 296 #71 of AF Corse also takes the lead in the Silver class, behind which we have the #93 of Sky Tempesta Racing – second Bronze – and the #14 of Emil Frey Racing.
Again in this outing there are 18 cars within 1″, reporting that the first of the Aston Martins is 12th with the Drudi/Baert duo of Comtoyou Racing #7, while the best McLaren is the #159 of Garage 59 in nineteenth.
Saturday’s programme includes Qualifying 1 at 9.50am to define the starting grid for Race 1, set for 2.15pm.
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