Reigning two-time FIA GT World Cup winner Raffaele Marciello claimed his third FIA GT World Cup qualifying success in as many editions, main BMW stablemate Dries Vanthoor in front-row lockout for the Bavarian producer
The Italian racer who switched to BMW for 2024, having spent the majority of his profession with Mercedes-AMG, is about to start out Saturday’s 12-lap qualification race from pole place, along with his qualifying triumph being the primary time his named appeared atop of the timing screens this weekend.
The youthful of the 2 Vanthoor brothers got here an in depth second aboard his M4 GT3, being solely 0.053s down on the sister automotive with Marciello behind the wheel.
Third was, the perfect of the Mercedes-AMGs drivers, Maro Engel who was the early pace-setter in what was the primary dry session of the occasion that additionally noticed crimson flags on two events. The German needed to abort his pole try following a crimson flag within the closing levels of the session following a large crash of Luca Engstler at exit of the Mandarin nook.
The driving force of the #8 Liqui Moly Staff Engstler Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo 2 remained aware after the crash however was taken to a neighborhood hospital for precautionary checks.
FIA GT World Cup rookie Antonio Fuoco, making his Macau GP return having competed right here in Method 3 a decade in the past, was the highest-ranked Ferrari driver aboard his AF Corse-operated 296 GT3.
The third row of the grid went to additional two BMW drivers, August Farus who can have Sheldon van der Linder for firm on the beginning grid, with each being atop of the occasions at totally different levels of the session during which BMW seemed just like the automotive to have.
Seventh went to the newly-crowned FIA Hypercar World Endurance Drivers’ Champion Laurens Vanthoor who was the quickest driver from the six-car-strong Porsche effort, along with his Absolut Racing team-mate Alessio Piciarello in eight, 0.6s down on the Belgian’s time.
The highest ten was rounded out by the 2 Audi drivers, Ricard Feller and Christopher Haase.
Some of the embellished Macau racers, Edoardo Mortara, ended up down in eleventh, having demonstrated robust tempo within the closing levels of the periods, however having to abort his flying lap as a result of Engstler’s crash that resulted in a crimson flag with 4 minutes remaining on the clock, after which the motion was not resumed.
Porsche’s Laurin Heinrich crashed on out on his first flying lap going into the Lisboa nook, inflicting an early crimson lag. The IMSA SportsCar Championship’s GTD Professional class champion managed to limp again to the pits and after a hasty restore job was again on monitor with simply over 13 minutes on the clock remaining to finish up the session in seventeenth place.
Adderly Fong within the fan favorite Kuromi-themed Audi took half in qualifying after his participation was put into query following Friday’s FP2 crash that resulted within the automotive having to be rebuilt in a single day. The Hong-Kongnes racer went on to qualify nineteenth.
Jules Gounon was one other sufferer of the demanding circuit, placing his Craft-Bamboo Racing-run Mercedes-AMG into the wall on the Police nook (T15), destroying the front-left finish of the automotive and having to limp again to the pits. In consequence, the three-time Bathurst 12 Hours winner will begin tomorrow’s Qualification Race from the again of the 23-car subject.
