Iron Lynx gave Lamborghini its first Endurance Cup pole since 2021 after the Italian marque emerged as the dominant force in this morning's Qualifying session at Circuit Paul Ricard.
For the first two segments it seemed that fellow Squadra Corsa outfit Grasser Racing would secure P1 on the grid. Franck Perera made a dream start by pacing Q1, while Marco Mapelli was fourth in Q2. But the Iron Lynx crew were also mounting an assault on pole as Andrea Caldarelli placed sixth in the opening session, before Matteo Cairoli produced the second-best lap in Q2.
Entering the final 10-minute session, the gap between the leading contenders was almost too close to call. But with qualifying specialist Mirko Bortolotti still to run, Iron Lynx had an ace up its sleeve. The Italian delivered the best lap of the day – a blistering 1m52.775s – to seize the advantage.
Their task was made easier by a troubled final session for Grasser, with Christian Engelhart unable to do better than 29th overall. This allowed Schumacher CLRT to snatch second on the grid with its #22 Porsche after Ayhancan Güven (P4), Laurin Heinrich (P3), Dorian Boccolacci (P6) delivered an impressively consistent display across the three sessions.
Mercedes-AMG Team GetSpeed also split the Lamborghinis. Luca Stolz was only 17th in Q1 but Fabian Schiller started the recovery by going fastest of all in the second session before Jules Gounon posted the third-best time in Q3. Grasser will start fourth, followed by a trio of BMWs: the #998 ROWE Racing, the #46 Team WRT, and the #32 Team WRT.
Eighth overall went to the Bronze Cup pole-sitter, Garage 59, which produced a star performance with its #188 McLaren. Adam Smalley was a superb P3 overall in the opening session, while James Cottingham and Louis Prette also produced strong times. The British squad will start 11 spots ahead of its closest class contender, the #93 Sky Tempesta Racing Ferrai.
Gold Cup pole went to the #77 AlManar Racing by GetSpeed trio of Al Faisal Al Zubair, Dominik Baumann and Mikaël Grenier. The latter scored the best overall result, finishing P9 in the third session, while the car will start from 15th. Fellow Mercedes-AMG squad Madpanada Motorsport took Silver Cup pole thanks to its two-man crew of Ezequiel Perez Companc and Patrick Assenheimer, who will start 22nd.
All 54 cars took part in Qualifying, though the #77 Mercedes-AMG and the #74 Ferrari both missed sessions along the way. The season-opening Endurance Cup race will get underway at 15:00 CEST, with live coverage on the GT World YouTube channel.
