The 2024 GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup season gets underway with the penultimate round at Magny-Cours, where Jules Gounon kicked off the weekend with the fastest time in Free Practice.
At the wheel of the #9 Mercedes prepared by Boutsen VDS, the Frenchman put the AMG GT3 in front of everyone with a time of 1’37″374 with about 30 minutes to go, beating the #96 Porsche of Rutronik Racing by just 0″009, which Dennis Marschall had managed to put into the lead shortly before.
The first part of the session was, as always, reserved for drivers with Bronze and Silver licenses, and in the Top 5 we find three Bronze Cup crews, with the Century Motorsport BMW #991 driven by Dan Harper obtaining the third fastest time overall, stopping 11 thousandths of a second away from second place and keeping behind the Rutronik Racing Porsche #97 and the Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini #78 by a matter of hundredths.
Good sixth time with almost 0″3 of delay from the top for the Audi #99 of Tresor Attempto, followed by the Mercedes #10 of Boutsen VDS which is leader of the Silver Cup Class, while eighth we find the Audi #66 of Tresor Attempto which is fourth Bronze.
Ninth overall was the Audi #25 of Saintéloc, first in the Gold Cup class, the top 10 was completed by the BMW #32 of WRT of the Weerts/Vanthoor duo, contenders for the title against the Mercedes #48 of Winward which stopped 13th, half a second off the top spot, preceded by the Audis of CSA Racing #111 (second Gold) and Eastalent #84.
As for Ferraris, the best 296 GT3 is the #14 of Emil Frey Racing in 17th, with its little sister #69 in 22nd just ahead of the #71 of AF Corse. Further back is the #7 Aston Martin of Comtoyou Racing where Mattia Drudi is at the wheel with Nicolas Baert, 28th overall.
Today’s program includes the 60′ Pre-Qualifying at 20:25.
| Post | # | Class | pilots | Team | car | chrono | detachment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 9 | Pro Cup | Maximilian Götz, Jules Gounon | Boutsen VDS | Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO | 1:37.374 | |
| 2 | 96 | Pro Cup | Sven Müller, Patric Niederhauser | Rutronik Racing | Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) | 1:37.383 | 0.009 |
| 3 | 991 | Bronze Cup | Daniel Harper, Darren Leung | Century Motorsport | BMW M4 GT3 | 1:37.394 | 0.020 |
| 4 | 97 | Bronze Cup | Dennis Marschall, Dustin Blattner | Rutronik Racing | Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) | 1:37.444 | 0.070 |
| 5 | 78 | Bronze Cup | Sandy Mitchell, Rob Collard | Barwell Motorsport | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO 2 | 1:37.446 | 0.072 |
| 6 | 99 | Pro Cup | Ricardo Feller, Alex Aka | Tresor Attempt Racing | Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II | 1:37.626 | 0.252 |
| 7 | 10 | Silver Cup | Aurelien Panis, Cesar Gazeau | Boutsen VDS | Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO | 1:37.738 | 0.364 |
| 8 | 66 | Bronze Cup | Dylan Pereira, Andrey Mukovoz | Tresor Attempt Racing | Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II | 1:37.775 | 0.401 |
| 9 | 25 | Gold Cup | Paul Evrard, Gilles Magnus | Sainteloc Racing | Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II | 1:37.778 | 0.404 |
| 10 | 32 | Pro Cup | Dries Vanthoor, Charles Weerts | Team WRT | BMW M4 GT3 | 1:37.803 | 0.429 |
| 11 | 111 | Gold Cup | Lucas Legeret, Simon Gachet | CSA Racing | Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II | 1:37.820 | 0.446 |
| 12 | 84 | Pro Cup | Christopher Haase, Simon Reicher | Eastalent Racing | Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II | 1:37.837 | 0.463 |
| 13 | 48 | Pro Cup | Lucas Auer, Maro Engel | Winward Racing Team MANN-FILTER | Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO | 1:37.858 | 0.484 |
| 14 | 90 | Silver Cup | Ezequiel Perez Companc, Tom Kalender | Madpanda Motorsport | Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO | 1:37.944 | 0.570 |
| 15 | 11 | Gold Cup | Sebastian ØGaard, James Jakes | Comtoyou Racing | Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 EVO | 1:37.962 | 0.588 |
| 16 | 72 | Bronze Cup | Patrick Kujala, Gabriel Rindone | Barwell Motorsport | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO 2 | 1:37.981 | 0.607 |
| 17 | 14 | Pro Cup | Ben Green, Konsta Lappalainen | Emil Frey Racing | Ferrari 296 GT3 | 1:38.095 | 0.721 |
| 18 | 30 | Silver Cup | Calan Williams, Sam de Haan | Team WRT | BMW M4 GT3 | 1:38.149 | 0.775 |
| 19 | 6 | Gold Cup | Luca Engstler, Max Hofer | LIQUI MOLY Team Engstler by OneGroup | Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II | 1:38.223 | 0.849 |
| 20 | 26 | Silver Cup | Marcus Paverud, Ivan Klymenko | Sainteloc Racing | Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II | 1:38.245 | 0.871 |
| 21 | 159 | Pro Cup | Benjamin Goethe, Tom Gamble | Garage 59 | McLaren 720S GT3 EVO | 1:38.384 | 1.010 |
| 22 | 69 | Pro Cup | Giacomo Altoe, Thierry Vermeulen | Emil Frey Racing | Ferrari 296 GT3 | 1:38.423 | 1.049 |
| 23 | 71 | Silver Cup | Thomas Fleming, Eliseo Donno | AF Racing | Ferrari 296 GT3 | 1:38.443 | 1.069 |
| 24 | 21 | Gold Cup | David Pittard, Matisse Lismont | Comtoyou Racing | Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 EVO | 1:38.451 | 1.077 |
| 25 | 188 | Bronze Cup | Louis Prette, Miguel Ramos | Garage 59 | McLaren 720S GT3 EVO | 1:38.464 | 1.090 |
| 26 | 88 | Gold Cup | Lorenzo Patrese, Lorenzo Ferrari | Tresor Attempt Racing | Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II | 1:38.507 | 1.133 |
| 27 | 44 | Bronze Cup | Steven Palette, Stephane Denoual | Schumacher CLRT | Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) | 1:38.586 | 1.212 |
| 28 | 7 | Pro Cup | Nicolas Baert, Mattia Drudi | Comtoyou Racing | Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 EVO | 1:38.702 | 1.328 |
| 29 | 85 | Bronze Cup | Ugo De Wilde, Dmitry Gvazava | Imperial Racing | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO 2 | 1:38.801 | 1.427 |
| 30 | 52 | Silver Cup | Sean Hudspeth, Jef Machiels | AF Racing | Ferrari 296 GT3 | 1:38.967 | 1.593 |
| 31 | 12 | Silver Cup | Lorens Lecertua, Dante Rappange | Comtoyou Racing | Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 EVO | 1:39.433 | 2.059 |
| 32 | 93 | Bronze Cup | Eddie Cheever, Jonathan Hui | SKY Storm Racing | Ferrari 296 GT3 | 1:39.660 | 2.286 |
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