Christopher Haase put Saintéloc Racing on top in pre-qualifying at Misano with a benchmark time of 1m32.552s at the wheel of the #25 Audi.
The German driver fell just short of Charles Weerts' quickest effort in the earlier practice session, but did enough to edge Dominik Baumann (#20 SPS Automotive Performance Mercedes-AMG) this afternoon. Audi Sport ace Haase has form at Misano, having scored podium finishes in each of the past three visits to the Italian track.
Baumann was a mere 0.013s shy go top spot in the Pro-Am car he shares with Valentin Pierburg. The SPS duo were some way clear of their nearest class rivals and are coming off the back of a maiden win last time out at Zandvoort. The next Pro-Am entry was the #188 Garage 59 Aston Martin, which was 16 spots back.
Dries Vanthoor was third in the #32 Team WRT Audi, maintaining the strong performance Weerts put in earlier, while Pierre Alexandre-Jean (#107 CMR Bentley) was fourth overall and topped the Silver Cup class. Raffaele Marciello was fifth, concluding a day on which the #88 AKKA ASP Mercedes-AMG was a surprise absentee from the top of the order.
Like free practice, pre-qualifying ran without major incident. This was particularly impressive given that Misano is hosting the biggest Sprint Cup field since 2017, with 30 cars on-track today. The full result from the session can be viewed here.
The competitive action begins tomorrow with qualifying 1 taking place at 09:45, setting the grid for race 1 at 15:00. The same format will be repeated on Sunday, with qualifying 2 at 09:00 and race 2 at 14:00. All of the action will be streamed live across the series' social media platforms and the GT World YouTube channel.
