AF Corse Francorchamps Motors put Ferrari on pole position for this afternoon's three-hour race at Monza with a dominant qualifying performance on home soil.
The #51 crew of Alessandro Pier Guidi, Alessio Rovera and Vincent Abril unleashed the full potential of the 296 GT3 to secure their place at the head of the 52-car field. They will share the front row of the grid with the #7 Aston Martin – Comtoyou Racing, which leads the Endurance Cup standings ahead of today's contest.
Rovera ran first and set the tone for what was to come by topping Q1 with a 1m44.922s. Next up was Abril, who has joined the #51 Ferrari roster this weekend in place of the otherwise-engaged Davide Rigon. Abril didn't miss a beat, pacing Q2 with a 1m45.038s.
Last but not least, Pier Guidi took his turn behind the wheel. The Italian immediately went quickest in Q3 and then improved again with a 1m44.774s. Pole position was now beyond doubt, the seventh for Ferrari at its home circuit.
But it was not quite a perfect day, as Jordan Pepper shaved 0.047 seconds off Pier Guidi's benchmark to top Q3 aboard the #163 Grasser Racing Lamborghini. Indeed, Pepper's time – a 1m44.727s – establishes a new GT3 lap record at the Italian venue.
The #7 Aston Martin secured its best starting spot of the season thanks to the efforts of Mattia Drudi (P6), Marco Sørensen (P3) and Nicki Thiim (P5). The #48 Mercedes-AMG – Team Mann-Filter will line-up third alongside the #32 BMW – Team WRT.
Fifth spot went to the #22 Porsche – Schumacher CLRT, followed by the #163 Lamborghini – Grasser Racing. As such, six different brands occupied the top six positions on the grid.
Bronze Cup pole went to the #188 McLaren – Garage 59 thanks to a superb showing from the trio of Adam Smalley, Miguel Ramos and Louis Prette. They will start ninth overall, six places clear of the #52 AF Corse Ferrari. As has often been the case this year, Ramos was the fastest Bronze-graded driver in qualifying.
The #21 Aston Martin – Comtoyou Racing bagged Gold Cup pole thanks to Matisse Lismont, Job van Uitert and Charles Clark. Lismont was especially impressive, posting the 12th best time overall in Q1. The #21 machine will start 13th overall, five spots clear of the #25 Saintéloc Racing Audi.
Grasser Racing ensured that four different brands shared the class poles by putting the #19 Lamborghini P1 in the Silver Cup. Artem Petrov and Baptiste Moulin were quickest in their respective sessions, while Matteo Llarena was P2 in his. This was good enough for P16 overall, followed by the #26 Saintéloc Racing Audi in P19.
The session was halted late in Q2 when Maxime Oosten crashed heavily aboard the #98 BMW – ROWE Racing. The Dutchman lost the car exiting the Ascari chicane and made heavy contact with the tyre barriers, which subsequently required repair work. Ootsen was able to exit the car unaided, though the #98 BMW is a doubt for this afternoon's race.
The penultimate Endurance Cup contest of 2024 gets under at 15:30 CEST and can be watched live on the GT World YouTube channel.
> Result: Monza