Mercedes-AMG Team Mann-Filter has opened the 2026 season by scoring its second successive ROWE Pole Position Award at Circuit Paul Ricard courtesy of Lucas Auer, Luca Stolz and Maro Engel.
Auer began their bid with the fourth best time in Qualifying 1. Next up was Stolz – a new addition to the Mamba-liveried #48 crew – who was fastest of all in Q2. This put Maro Engel in the box seat to secure pole in the final segment.
The German ace was made to sweat in the Le Castellet sun, but ultimately did enough to finish the job. Though only 11th in his session, Team Mann-Filter took pole by 0.054s.
The man making Engel and co. sweat was Benjamin Goethe, who was within a whisker of putting the #58 Garage 59 McLaren on top but ultimately had to settle for P2 on the grid. His teammates Louis Prette and Thomas Fleming also delivered strong showings in their sessions.
The #7 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin will start third on the grid, aided by Nicki Thiim placing second overall in Q3. The #58 Garage 59 McLaren took fourth, though it had been fastest of all in Q1 thanks to Joseph Loake.
The #80 Lionspeed GP Porsche was fifth, followed by the #17 Mercedes-AMG Team GetSpeed, the #111 CSA Racing McLaren and the #3 Mercedes-AMG Team Verstappen Racing. The #51 AF Corse Ferrari and the #32 Team WRT BMW completed the top 10.
The fastest individual lap was set by Fabian Schiller, who delivered a 1m53.049s to top Q3. He was followed by Thiim and Jules Gounon (#3 Mercedes-AMG). Stolz was fourth, while Simon Birch was a surprise (and very impressive) fifth in the #71 Selected Car Racing Ferrari.
Among the class contenders, the #58 McLaren was the best of the Gold Cup runners in P2 overall, while the #111 CSA Racing McLaren also looked strong in P7. The #21 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin will start from Silver Cup pole (P13 overall) after a strong showing from its trio Oliver Söderström, Sebastien Baud and Kobe Pauwels.
Herberth Motorsport scored Bronze Cup pole, qualifying 34th overall with its #91 Porsche. Ralf Bohn, Robert Renauer and debutant Huub van Eijndhoven combined to put their car at the head of its class. The #56 Ecurie Ecosse Blackthorn Aston Martin and the #97 Rutronik Racing Porsche were next up in 37th and 38th overall.
The opening race of the 2026 GT World Challenge powered by AWS season gets underway at 18:00 CEST and will air live on the GT World YouTube channel.