GTWorldChEu at Paul Ricard: Qualifying

SRO

Jun 3

Akkodis ASP Team #88 Mercedes-AMG GT3 in pole

Raffaele Marciello, Jules Gounon and Timur Boguslavskiy with the Akkodis ASP Team #88 Mercedes-AMG GT3 sealed top spot for Circuit Paul Ricard 1000 km after a fascinating contest as five cars looked to have a legitimate shot at pole heading into Q3. Source: SRO

📷 © SRO at Circuit Paul Ricard 2023: #88 Akkodis ASP Mercedes-AMG GT3.

Marciello gave Akkodis ASP the ideal start by leading Q1 from Alessio Rovera (#51 AF Corse Ferrari) and Maro Engel (#777 Mercedes-AMG Team AlManar).

In Q2 the #71 AF Corse Ferrari of Davide Rigon hit the front, bringing his crew into contention, while a consistent showing from the #40 Tresor Orange1 Audi added another challenger to the mix.

In Q3, it was Gounon who truly delivered with the fastest lap of the day (1m52.982s) putting his car on pole. No one else could get within three tenths of his impressive benchmark ahead of Circuit Paul Ricard 1000 km.

📷 © SRO at Circuit Paul Ricard 2023: #777 Almanar Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3.

The #777 Mercedes-AMG Team AlManar entry will start second after Luca Stolz and Fabian Schiller backed up Engel's strong Q1 showing.

📷 © SRO at Circuit Paul Ricard 2023: #51 AF Corse - Francorchamps Motors Ferrari 296 GT3.

The AF Corse Ferrari pair secured third (#51) and fifth (#71) on the grid, a highly encouraging result for the Italian marque's new 296 GT3.

📷 © SRO at Circuit Paul Ricard 2023: #40 Tresor Orange 1 Audi.

They were split by the #40 Audi, which should also be a factor in this evening's race.

BMW, Porsche and Lamborghini further in ranking

📷 © SRO at Circuit Paul Ricard 2023: #32 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3..

The first BMW M4 is #32 Team WRT BMW driven by Weerts/van der L’Inde/vanthoor.

The fastest Porsche (Rotronik Racing #96) is 13th and Lamborghini best entries qualifies 14th (Iron Lynx #63).

Gold Cup

Winward Racing gave Mercedes-AMG another pole position by topping the Gold Cup classification. The #57 machine qualified an excellent 10th overall, despite Russell Ward being 30th after Q1. Indy Dontje began the recovery by finishing eighth fastest in Q2, while Philip Ellis was a superb P3 overall in the final session.