Mercedes continues to stand out at Paul Ricard, where on Friday evening the protagonists of the GT World Challenge Europe faced the Pre-Qualifications of the French 1000 Km valid as the second round of the Endurance Cup.
The weather at Le Castellet didn’t leave us calm even in the afternoon hours, where after a beautiful and warm sun a good downpour returned to clean the track again and restarting track activities on the wet, before giving way again to the beautiful time.
This time it was the AMG #88 driven by Akkodis-ASP that put everyone in line with a time of 1’53″783, keeping behind its sister car #87 for half a second.
Only in the final stages did the Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini #78 crash, which with Dennis Lind took the place of honor also obtaining the record in the PRO-AM class.
The Audi #888 of CSA Racing instead finished in fourth place and set the benchmark for participants in the Bronze Cup, with the Mercedes #777 of AlManar Racing finishing in the Top5 after finishing the early afternoon Free Practice in the lead.
#777 Al Manar Racing, Mercedes-AMG GT3: Maro Engel, Fabian Schiller, Luca Stolz
Photo by: Francesco Corghi
In the Gold Cup it was the BMW #30 of the Team that dictated the law thanks to the sixth time overall ahead of the McLaren #188 of Garage 59 – second Bronze – followed by the Mercedes #157 of Winward Racing – third Bronze – and the #79 of HRT rival of category.
Finally, the #5 McLaren of Optimum Motorsport is also in the Top10, ahead of the Lamborghini #63 of Iron Lynx and the Porsches of Rutronik Racing and Dinamic Motorsport, as well as the Ferrari #51 of AF Corse-Francorchamps Motors, the best of the 296 GT3s.
Far behind all the other BMWs, including Valentino Rossi’s #46, plus Farfus and Martin is only 45th overall out of 57 starters.
The only interruption to report occurred due to the Porsche #22 prepared by CLRT for Dorian Boccolacci going off the track at turn 11 which required a quarter of an hour of intervention to put things back in order.
Saturday sees Qualifying at 11.00, divided as always into three sessions from which the average time of the three crews’ drivers will determine the position on the starting grid for the 1000 km of Paul Ricard, whose green light will be at 18.00.
GTWC EUROPE-ENDURANCE CUP – 1000km del Paul Ricard: Pre-Qualifiche
