Christian Engelhart topped the time sheets in qualifying for the Hankook 12H Italy-Mugello.
Driving the GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracan GT3, the German driver set a fastest lap of 1:47.909 in the session.
He’ll share the No. 963 car with Rolf Ineichen, Marc Ineichen and Adrian Amstutz in the race.
Second fastest was Rory Butcher in the MJC – Furlonger Ferrari 458GT, 0.351 seconds slower than Engelhart.
The MP Sports Mercedes SLS AMG GT3 and Precote Herberth Motorsport Porsche 991 GT3 R will line up on the second row of the grid.
Engelhart snatched pole position from Butcher in the dying seconds of the qualifying session.
He was one of the few drivers still out on the track after a late Code 60 and came through to claim pole as the checkered flag was already shown.
This year’s pole time was 0.115 seconds faster than last year’s pole.
Butcher himself had taken provisional pole away from Robert Kubica, in his circuit racing return, with 13 minutes remaining, but both drivers were denied another chance when the Code 60 flags were shown.
The fastest car in the A6-Am class was the HTP Motorsport GmbH Mercedes SLS AMG GT3.
Indy Dontje was the fastest driver in the class, his lap time of 1:50.012 almost three seconds faster than that of the Spirit Race Audi R8 LMS ultra in second.
Other class pole-sitters included the Sportec Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo (SPX), GT3 Poland Porsche 911 Cup (991) and the RTR Projects 2 KTM X-BOW GT of Tomas Enge (SP2).