Marciello Claims Macau Pole in BMW Front Row Sweep

Photo: FIA

Raffaele Marciello has claimed pole for Saturday’s Qualifying Race at the FIA GT World Cup in Macau, leading a front-row sweep for BMW.

Marciello, in the No. 1 Toro Racing by MCG BMW M4 GT3, reeled off a best lap of 2:16.509 to edge out fellow BMW runner Dries Vanthoor in the No. 32 Team WRT entry by 0.53 seconds.

The 30-minute session came to a dramatic end when Luca Engstler suffered a massive crash exiting Mandarin with four minutes to go.

The session did not resume as a result of a massive stretch of debris on the track.

Maro Engel qualified third in the No. 130 GruppeM Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, with Antonio Fuoco fourth in the No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3.

Former Main Race winner Augusto Farfus completed the top-five in the No. 89 KRC BMW, ahead of Sheldon van der Linde’s rebuilt No. 31 WRT BMW in sixth.

Laurens Vanthoor was quickest of the Porsches, placing seventh in the No. 25 Anbsolute Racing entry, ahead of teammate Alessio Picariello in eighth.

Audi teammates Ricardo Feller and Christopher Haase completed the top-ten.

The session was halted early on for an accident by Macau rookie Laurin Heinrich, who drove his No. 88 Schumacher CLRT Porsche into the Turn 3 barriers to bring out a red flag.

Less than five minutes after the resumption of action, Jules Gounon slammed his No. 99 Craft-Bamboo Racing Mercedes-AMG into the barriers, but limped the car to the pits to prevent another red.

Engstler’s massive accident, meanwhile, brought proceedings to an early end.

The 12-lap Qualifying Race is set for Saturday at 1:50 p.m. local time (12:50 a.m. ET) with live coverage on FIA’s YouTube channel featuring commentary from David Addison and Alan Hyde.

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John