Mercedes 1-2 In First Round Of Indy 8H Qualifying
The field for this evening’s Indianapolis 8 Hour powered by AWS Pole Shootout is set after the first round of Qualifying.
All 22 teams sent their three drivers out for three stages of time trials to set positions 11-22 on the starting grid, and determine the field for the Pole Shootout.
The two factory-backed Mercedes-AMG GT3s finished first and second after three 15-minute Qualifying sessions, with defending Indy 8 Hour race winners Team Craft-Bamboo Racing heading into the Pole Shootout on provisional pole position.
Team GruppeM Racing’s Maro Engel started off in Q1 with the fastest time – but the combined efforts of Marciello and Gounon in Q2 and Q3 would put the black, white, and green #77 Craft-Bamboo Mercedes of Marciello, Gounon, and Maximillian Götz on top of the combined average rankings, just a tenth ahead of the #999 of Engel, Daniel Juncadella, and Luca Stolz.
All four IGTC Pro class cars advanced as expected – the #77 and #999 Mercedes, and the two Team WRT BMW M4 GT3s with the orange #30 BMW (Philipp Eng/Sheldon van der Linde/Dries Vanthoor) ahead of the white #31 (Augusto Farfus/Maxime Martin/Charles Weerts).
After setting the fastest time in Pre-Qualifying this morning, the #28 RS1 Porsche 911 GT3 R (Eric Filgueiras/Stevan McAleer/Klaus Bachler) finished fifth in the session, putting them ahead of all their rivals in the FGTWCA Pro category.
The #45 Wright Motorsports Porsche (Madison Snow/Jan Heylen/Trent Hindman) was sixth, and the fastest Pro-Am car was the #20 Huber Motorsport Porsche (Antares Au/Alfred Renauer/Laurin Heinrich). Heinrich, in fact, set the fastest time in Q3.
Two more BMWs made the cut – the #94 BimmerWorld BMW (Chandler Hull/Bill Auberlen/Robby Foley), and the #38 ST Racing BMW (Samantha Tan/Jake Walker/Neil Verhagen) following a Q3 flyer from Verhagen to bump back into the top ten.
Last of those to advance was the #535 Sky Tempesta Racing Ferrari 488 GT3 (Jonathan Hui/Chris Froggatt/Edward Cheever III), holding off the #91 DXDT Racing Mercedes (Jeff Burton/Corey Lewis/Philip Ellis) for the final place in the Pole Shootout.
Conquest Racing recovered from a clutch issue in Pre-Qualifying to put the #21 Ferrari 296 GT3 (Manny Franco/Alessandro Balzan/Lilou Wadoux) 12th on the grid for tomorrow’s race.
GT World Challenge America Pro-Am title contenders Wright Motorsports and CrowdStrike by Riley are also further back in the pack. The #120 Wright Motorsports Porsche (Adam Adelson/Elliott Skeer/Callum Ilott) qualified 13th, four places ahead of the #04 CrowdStrike/Riley Mercedes (George Kurtz/Colin Braun/Nolan Siegel) in 17th.
Every driver in every car was able to set a representative lap time with no major incidents.
Images © Fabian Lagunas / SRO Motorsports America
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