Ulysse De Pauw secured overall pole for this afternoon's Fanatec GT Sprint race at Valencia, while Team WRT seized the championship advantage after a disastrous qualifying session for Akkodis ASP.
Already crowned Silver Cup champion, De Pauw put the #53 AF Corse Ferrari on top with a lap of 1m30.467s, beating Charles Weerts in the #32 Team WRT Audi by 0.152s. Weerts will not be too dissatisfied with that starting spot, however, as the rival #89 Akkdodis ASP Mercedes-AMG could only manage 16th on the 26-car grid.
With the exception of the pole-sitting Ferrari, this was a session for the Audi contingent. Weerts was followed by five more R8 runners, with the #11 Tresor by Car Collection and #66 Attempto Racing entries taking P3 and P4 respectively. The third row will be shared by the #26 Saintéloc Junior Team and #30 Team WRT machines, which were second and third in the Silver Cup classification after De Pauw.
Mercedes-AMG, on the other hand, did not enjoy a good session. The marque's best qualifier was the #87 Akkodis ASP entry, which took 10th but faces a grid drop. The sister #88 was 12th, while the #90 Madpanda Motorsport entry qualified 14th. In the championship-contending #89 Akkodis ASP car, Timur Boguslavskiy was only 16th and must make up significant ground this afternoon to prevent Team WRT from clinching the title.
AF Corse secured Pro-Am pole – completing a lockout of all three classes for the Italian squad – thanks to Hugo Delacour in the #21 Ferrari. He beat championship leader Miguel Ramos (#188 Garage 59 McLaren) and Patryk Krupinski (#111 JP Motorsport McLaren) thanks to a 1m31.795s.
The penultimate race of the 2022 Fanatec GT Sprint season gets underway at 14:00 CEST. Live coverage will be available to watch with English, German, French and Italian commentary on the GTWorld YouTube channel.