Harper Quickest in Pre-Qual; BMW Locks Out Top Three

ROWE Racing driver Dan Harper went quickest in Pre-Qualifying for the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup round at Paul Ricard to lead a BMW 1-2-3.

Harper steered the No. 998 BMW M4 GT3 to a best lap of 1:54.003, outpacing Team WRT’s Charles Weerts by 0.089 seconds.

Defending CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa winner Marco Wittmann completed the top three aboard the No. 98 ROWE Racing entry, ensuring all but one of the Munich marque’s Pro entries were represented in the overall top five.

Lucas Auer took fourth aboard the No. 48 Mercedes-AMG Team Mann-Filter Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, while Andrea Caldarelli picked up fifth at the wheel of the No. 63 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2.

Adam Smalley, who is making his Fanatec GT Europe debut this weekend, ended the session in sixth aboard the No. 188 Garage 59 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo and led Bronze Cup in the progress, ahead of Kessel Racing driver David Fumanelli and Century Motorsport’s Jake Dennis.

A late improvement from Davide Rigon left the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 ninth as Christian Engelhart rounded out the top ten at the wheel of the No. 163 GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini.

Mikael Grenier led Gold Cup aboard the No. 777 Mercedes-AMG in twelfth overall, while Madpanda Motorsport went quickest in Silver Cup.

The 60-minute session, the final of the day for Fanatec GT Europe, came to a premature end after Nicolas Baert hit the barriers with ten minutes to go aboard the No. 12 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo. This caused a red flag, after which running was not resumed.

Qualifying for the opening round of the Endurance Cup season takes place Sunday at 9:45 a.m. CEST (3:45 a.m. EDT).

RESULTS: Pre-Qualifying