A 1m36.840s from Ugo De Wilde was enough to put the #85 Imperiale Racing Lamborghini on top in tonight's Pre-Qualifying at Magny-Cours.
The Belgian driver was relatively comfortable at the head of the order, finishing the one-hour session with a 0.259s cushion over Gilles Magnus in the #25 Saintéloc Racing Audi. As such Pre-Qualifying ended with a Bronze Cup car on top and a Gold Cup entrant in P2.
Third overall went to the #99 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi of Ricardo Feller, followed by Steven Palette aboard the #44 Schumacher CLRT Porsche and Christopher Haase in the #84 Eastalent Racing Audi. The latter team is making its Sprint Cup debut this weekend.
Ivan Klymenko continued his strong run of form aboard the #26 Saintéloc Racing Audi, placing 11th overall and leading the Silver Cup class. The Ukrainian was four places clear of his nearest class contender.
Pre-Qualifying began just after sunset at 20:45 CEST, roughly 20 minutes later than scheduled due to stoppages in a previous session, and ran largely uninterrupted. Gabriel Rindone spun at the wheel of the #72 Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini during the early stages, but was able to gather the car up and continue.
There was also a brief Full-Course Yellow during the final minutes due to the #11 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin stopping at the final chicane, but this was dealt with quickly. All 32 cars were on-track, the #30 Team WRT BMW propping up the order after missing much of Thursday's test session.
Saturday's action begins at 14.25 with Qualifying 1, while Race 1 gets underway just before sunset at 20.15. Both will be streamed live on the GT World YouTube channel.
> Result: Pre-Qualifying, Magny-Cours 2024