The #88 Mercedes is not a prominent candidate for the Endurance Cup title by chance, but rather because it has a highly talented and highly compensated line-up of drivers.. If Raffaele Marciello was the fastest rider in Imola in free practice, in Pre-Qualifying he received the best possible relief. With a time of 1:40.164, Jules Gounon has placed the #88 Mercedes at the top of the time table of the session prior to qualifying. Just 58 thousandths behind, Maro Engel finished with the #2 Mercedes of the GetSpeed team.
Jules Gounon recorded his 1:40.164 in the first half of the session, a record that no one was going to be able to beat. The slightly faster time than Raffaele Marciello set in free practice was enough to beat the #2 Mercedes by 58 thousandths, in the hands of Maro Engel, on his best lap. The German driver thus completed the double for the Stuttgart firm in a session in which Chris Mies has set the third fastest time with the Audi #25 of the Saintéloc Racing team. Fourth and fifth were the #66 and #99 Audis from Attempto Racing.
The fifth place of the #99 Audi, thanks to Nicolas Schöll’s best lap, has allowed the French team’s GT3 to be the benchmark in the Silver Cup. Inception Racing’s #7 McLaren had the same honor in the Gold Cup after finishing seventh thanks to the best lap recorded by Frederik Schandorff. Between the two, the #95 Beechdean AMR Aston Martin was placed with Nicki Thiim as the leader. The Audi #32, the McLaren #111 and the Lamborghini #63 by Albert Costa have also been included in the top tenwith the best lap of Jack Aitken.
In contrast to the free session, Pre-Qualifying has developed almost continuously. Gone are the yellow flags, periods of ‘Full Course Yellow’ and the red flag with which the first session of the day has ended. In fact, the most noteworthy incidents have been a couple of spins and runway exits that have been resolved quickly and there has only been one period of ‘FCY’ promoted by race management to perform a system check.
In a Spanish key, beyond the leadership of Dani Juncadella’s #88 Mercedes and the tenth place of Albert Costa’s #63 Lamborghini, Pre-Qualifying has ended with a bad taste in the mouth for the #5 Ferrari crew1. In fact, the second of the Iron Lynx cars, in which Miguel Molina competes, could not get past 26th place with a best lap from Nicklas Nielsen eight tenths off the lead. For its part, Madpanda’s #90 Mercedes has finished at the bottom of the pack.
Photos: GT World Challenge Europe