Marciello & Mies Claim Brands Hatch Poles
Raffaele Marciello and Christopher Mies claimed pole position for tomorrow’s pair of Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup races at Brands Hatch.
Marciello set the pace in Qualifying 1 this afternoon, which decided the grid for the opening race. His best time aboard the #88 Akkodis ASP Mercedes AMG GT3 was a 1:22.258.
It was three-tenths faster than Albert Costa in the #69 Emil Frey Ferrari 296 GT3 that will line up alongside the #88 on the front row in Race 1.
The times came at the end of the session, following a red flag caused by an off for Christian Engelhart in the #54 Dinamic GT Porsche.
Marciello looked set to go to pole with the lap he was on when the Porsche went off, but was denied a chance to finish his flyer and instead had to wait until the very end of the session once the action restarted to set his fastest time.
Behind Costa, who also improved late, was Konsta Lappalainen in the sister #14 Emil Frey Ferrari that made it two Ferraris in the top three.
The top five was completed by the #40 Tressor Orange 1 Audi and the #32 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3, which was six-tenths off the pole time.
In the other classes, the #99 Tressor Attempto Audi set the fastest time in the Silver class, with a 1:23.215 that put it ninth overall. The #9 Boutsen VDS Audi will start from pole in the Gold class, with a 1:23.356 that was good enough for 11th overall in the 29-car field.
Qualifying 2 saw Mies set the benchmark time, a 1:21.716, which was the fastest single lap of the two sessions combined, to put his #27 Sainteloc Junior Team Audi on Pole for Race 2.
Behind, Christopher Haase, who topped Pre-Qualifying, made it a 1-2 for the German brand with a 1:21.970 in the #11 ComToYou Racing example.
Emil Frey again came close to pole, but Giacomo Altoe’s best tour of the Kent circuit, a 1:22.028, wasn’t good enough to stay top when Mies and Haase made late improvements. Instead, the #14 will start from the second row in third.
Like the opening session, Qualifying 2 was also interrupted by a red flag that led to a late dash for improvements. This time it was Lorenzo Patrese who caused the stoppage in the #99 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi, the Italian teenager ending up in the Paddock Hill gravel.
Completing the top five after the final flurry of times was the #25 Sainteloc Audi and #46 Team WRT BMW.
The #21 ComToYou Racing Audi was fastest of the other class runners, with a time good enough for the pole in the Gold class, and sixth overall. The #71 AF Corse Ferrari will start from 14th and pole in the Silver category.
Tomorrow’s races get underway at 11:05 and 16:40 respectively, local time in the UK.
QUALIFYING 1 TIMES >>>
QUALIFYING 2 TIMES >>>
Images courtesy of SRO
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