Morris Schuring scored his maiden GT World Challenge powered by AWS pole position on home soil by leading this morning's qualifying session at Zandvoort.
The Dutch ace set a 1m33.730s to bag the ROWE Pole Position Award and put his #2 Boutsen VDS Porsche in a strong position to triumph in this afternoon's race. He beat the #58 Garage 59 McLaren of Tom Fleming, who was 0.101s off Schuring's benchmark and earned the Gold Cup pole. His closest class rival Tommaso Mosca was just one place (and 0.046s) back in the #51 AF Corse Ferrari.
Eddie Cheever (#93 Ziggo Sport Tempesta Porsche) left it very late to secure Bronze Cup pole. He displaced Augusto Farfus (#991 Paradine Competition BMW) from best-in-class status and P4 overall with his final lap of the session, beating the Brazilian by 0.070s.
Sixth went to the #59 Garage 59 McLaren of Dean MacDonald, followed by Porsche drivers Klaus Bachler (#914 Razoon – more than racing) and Bastian Buus (#80 Lionspeed GP). The Ferraris of Thierry Vermeulen (#69 Emil Frey Racing) and Thomas Neubauer (#50 AF Corse) completed the top 10.
Silver Cup pole went to the #30 Team WRT BMW, which looks increasingly likely to complete a clean sweep of class titles this weekend. Matisse Lismont was 14th overall – and the best of Team WRT's four-car squad.
Indeed, the championship-leading #32 BMW of Charles Weerts could only manage 33rd on the grid and is at serious risk of being knocked off the top of the table. In further surprises, the #3 Mercedes-AMG Team Verstappen Racing entry of Dani Juncadella was 27th and fellow AMG pilot Lucas Auer (#48 Winward Racing) was 20th.
The weekend's opening race gets underway 14:45 and can be watched live on the GT World YouTube channel.