Simon Gachet will start this afternoon's Sprint Cup contest at Many-Cours from pole position after a superb qualifying performance from the #26 Sainteloc Racing Audi driver.
Gachet beat the Mercedes-AMG machines of Raffaele Marciello (AKKA ASP) and Maro Engel (HRT) to take his maiden overall pole while also dominating the Silver Cup class. The Frenchman's late lap of 1m35.468s was 0.015s clear of 2018 series champion Marciello, who bounced back from a difficult race last night to book a spot on the front row.
Having dominated on Saturday night, Engel will start third this afternoon and has every chance of contending for another win today. He was just 0.021s shy of Gachet in an ultra-close battle for pole. Christopher Haase ensured that both Sainteloc Audis will start on the front two rows of the grid by taking fourth, followed by the #163 Emil Frey Racing Lamborghini of Albert Costa.
Giancarlo Fisichella was sixth in the #92 Sky Tempesta Racing Ferrari and comfortably the fastest Pro-Am runner. Indeed, six cars will start between the Italian and his teammate Eddie Cheever III. Once again, the top 18 runners were separated by less than a second at Magny-Cours.
This afternoon's 60-minute race will bring the Sprint Cup season to its halfway point and gets underway at 13.50 CET. As ever, all of the action will be streamed live on the championship’s official website and Facebook pages, as well as the GT World YouTube channel.