GTWC | Magny-Cours, Q1: Gachet in Pole, Rossi on the block and 22nd

Simon Gachet won the Pole Position for Race 1 of the GT World Challenge Europe at the end of Qualifying 1 at Magny-Cours.

Under a beautiful sun, the competitors battled to decide the positions of the race valid for the second seasonal event of the Sprint Cup and the standard bearer of the Tresor by Car Collection placed the Audi R8 LMS # 11 in absolute command and in the PRO Class with a time of 1’36 “322.

The 20 ‘session also suffered an interruption 8’23 “from the end, when Valentino Rossi spun and walled the corner’ Estoril ‘with his Audi R8 LMS # 46. The’ Doctor ‘at that moment was looking for to improve his time and at least grab the Top 10.

Among other things, having caused the red flag, the Race Direction canceled the best performance of the Pesaro rider (who had also gone beyond the track limits previously) and the error will force the WRT Team rider to take 22nd.

Going back to the standings, Charles Weerts had the reference time before the stop with the Audi # 32 of Team WRT, but he was overtaken in the last seconds without being able to lower his limit.

The third time was instead achieved by the excellent Gilles Magnus in the Audi # 26 of the Saintéloc Junior Team, the fastest in the Silver Cup Class and completing the hat-trick of the Four Rings.

In the absolute Top5 we also have two other Silver competitors, namely Pierre-Alexandre Jean armed with the Ferrari 488 # 53 prepared by AF Corse, and Thomas Drouet, who with the Mercedes-AMG # 87 of the Akkodis ASP manages to precede the # 89 of his PRO teammate, Timur Boguslavskiy.

Following are three other Audis: Aurélien Panis finishes seventh in # 25 of the Saintéloc Junior Team, followed by # 99 of Nicolas Schöll (Attempto Racing) – fourth Silver in order – and by Jean-Baptiste Simmenauer with the # 33 of the Team WRT.

Completing the absolute Top10 is the Mercedes # 88 of Jim Pla (Akkodis-ASP), followed by that of Eddie Cheever (# 93 Sky Tempesta Racing) and the Audi of Pieter Schothorst (# 66 Attempto Racing) and Mattia Drudi (# 12 Tresor by Car Collection), as well as the Porsche 911 GT3-R # 54 of Dinamic Motorsport driven by Adrien De Leener.

In the PRO-AM Class the Garage 59 team confirms the excellent state of form with Miguel Ramos, author of the 1’38 “254 who keeps his McLaren 720 S # 188 one tenth ahead of that of Patryk Krupinski (# 111 JP Motorsport).

Third and fourth fastest time for the AF Corse Ferraris entrusted to Hugo Delacour (# 21) and Louis Machiels (# 52).

Finally, we would like to point out that Jota had to retire its McLaren # 38 after the pre-qualifying incident on Friday, when Oliver Wilkinson had exited at turn 7 and went violently into the wall.

The British team was unable to repair the 720 S on site, so they will be returning home to prepare for the Paul Ricard Endurance round in a couple of weeks.

Race 1, which will take place over a distance of 60 ‘with the driver change window in the middle, will start at 7.30 pm with the aforementioned drivers taking off.