Comtoyou Racing needs maximum points this weekend to strength its Endurance Cup title bid. The Aston Martin squad made the best possible start in this morning's qualifying, taking the ROWE Pole Position Award and a crucial bonus point.
The trio of Mattia Drudi, Marco Sørensen and Nicki Thiim did not top any of the three segments, placing P2, P6 and P3 respectively. Consistency is king in the Endurance Cup and it gave the #7 crew pole, the British brand's first since the 2018 CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa.
The Aston Martin will share the front row of the grid with the #17 Mercedes-AMG Team GetSpeed entry, which also built its success on consistency. Maxime Martin, Maximilian Götz and Fabian Schiller combined to secure P2 for the local squad.
The second row will be shared by the #80 Lionspeed GP Porsche – which had led the classification heading into Q3 – and the #59 Garage 59 McLaren. Both cars suffered from disappointing Q3 results for Bastian Buus and Marvin Kirchhöfer respectively.
The #32 Team WRT BMW qualified fifth but will start eighth due to a penalty incurred during free practice. This promotes the #3 Mercedes-AMG Team Verstappen Racing and the #58 Garage 59 McLaren, the latter taking a comfortable Gold Cup pole.
It also meant a one-place improvement for the championship-leading #48 Mercedes-AMG Team Mann-Filter entry, which struggled for pace throughout the session yet still salvaged a decent grid slot. If the Aston Martin wins from pole, the #48 must finish fourth to secure the title today.
After the penalised the #32 BMW, the #51 AF Corse Ferrari and the #99 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi completed the overall top 10. The latter was also P2 in the Gold Cup.
Silver Cup pole went to the #30 Team WRT BMW, which could clinch its class title this afternoon – and would certainly do so if it finishes P1 in class. The trio of Matisse Lismont, Ignacio Montenegro and Amaury Cordeel will start P17 overall this afternoon.
Second in Silver went to the #23 Team RJN McLaren. This result owed a great deal to Ben Dörr, who was fastest of anyone in Q3. Indeed, the German driver broke the qualifying lap record at the Nürburgring with a 1m53.070s, which was two tenths faster than anyone else.
2 Seas Motorsport took Bronze Cup pole, splitting the first two Silver cars in P18 overall. Charles Dawson, Kiern Jewiss and Reece Barr shared the controls of the #222 Mercedes-AMG, which was less than half a second adrift of the #48 Team Mann-Filter entry.
Qualifying was completed without any stoppages; indeed, if a yellow flag was shown, it was very brief. All 55 cars completed all three sessions, with less than a second covering the top 24. This afternoon's three-hour Endurance Cup race gets underway at 15:00 and can be wacthed live on the GT World YouTube channel.