Jake Dennis completed a perfect Saturday at Monza by pacing Pre-Qualifying aboard the #991 Paradine Competition BMW.
The Bronze Cup entry topped this morning's Free Practice and repeated the trick in the one-hour afternoon session after Dennis delivered a 1m45.306s. This was a few tenths shy of his earlier benchmark, but still comfortably clear of the competition.
Gilles Magnus was second fastest at the wheel of the #25 Saintéloc Racing Audi, 0.238s shy of Dennis, and was the best of the Gold Cup runners. The next two places were occupied by a pair of Bronze Cup cars as Sandy Mitchell (#78 Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini) edged Andrea Bertolini (#52 AF Corse Ferrari) by a mere 0.019s.
The best Pro runner was the #998 ROWE Racing BMW, which finished fifth overall thanks to Max Hesse. Next came the #93 Sky Tempesta Racing Ferrari of Eddie Cheever III, followed by Ivan Klymenko in the #26 Saintéloc Racing Audi. The latter delivered a late flyer to jump to the top of the Silver Cup standings, finishing a full 30 positions clear of his nearest class rival.
While Dennis led the way, this was not quite a perfect session for the Paradine squad as the #991 caused one of three red flags. The first was required after just a few minutes when Tim Creswick's #36 Walkenhorst Motorsport Aston Martin ground to a halt at the exit of the second Lesmo.
Creswick was stranded in the line of fire as several other cars rounded the corner and was fortunate not to be hit, though the #19 Lamborghini and the #21 Aston Martin both came very close to doing so. The red flag was deployed, though the Walkenhorst machine was soon running again and returned to the pits under its own power.
The second came with 20 minutes remaining when race control elected to stop the session to allow gravel to be removed from the track. Finally, with less than 10 minutes remaining, Darren Leung looped the #991 BMW into the Ascari gravel, though he was able to return to the pits without assistance.
Pre-Qualifying marked the conclusion of Saturday's running at Monza. Cars will be back on track at 09:00 CEST on Sunday morning for Qualifying, followed by the main event – a three-hour Fanatec GT Europe Endurance Cup race – at 15:30. All of the action can be watched live on the GT World YouTube channel.
> Result: Pre-Qualifying