Marciello Storms to Macau Pole

Photo: Mercedes-AMG

Raffaele Marciello will start Saturday’s FIA GT World Cup Qualification Race from the pole position after recording a record-breaking time in qualifying on Friday at the Guia Circuit.

Marciello, in his final flying lap, reeled off a best time of 2:14.542 in his No. 48 Landgraf Motorsport-run Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo to edge out Edoardo Mortara by 0.216 seconds.

Mortara, in the No. 40 Absolute Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II, held provisional pole in the closing moments of the 30-minute session, which featured a red flag for an accident by the No. 27 HubAuto Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R of Kevin Estre in Turn 3.

Estre’s Porsche sustained minor left-front damage but did not take any further part in the session.

It marked an all-Swiss front row and the third consecutive GT World Cup pole for Marciello, in his final outing with Mercedes-AMG this weekend.

The No. 77 Craft-Bamboo Racing Mercedes-AMG of Maro Engel is set to start from third on the grid, followed by Laurens Vanthoor in the No. 99 Toro Racing Porsche in fourth.

Macau rookie Sheldon van der Linde, meanwhile, completed the top-five in the No. 32 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3, ahead of Dani Juncadella’s No. 91 Craft-Bamboo Mercedes-AMG in sixth.

Daniel Serra, in the lone Ferrari 296 GT3, was seventh, ahead of 2018 winner Augusto Farfus in eighth, with Earl Bamber and Christopher Haase completing the top-ten, which were separated by just over one second.

In addition to Estre’s incident, the No. 33 R&B Racing Porsche of Silver-rated driver Hongli Ye made contact with the wall, sustaining left-front damage but continued without an intervention.

The 12-lap Qualification Race is scheduled for Saturday at 2:05 p.m. local time (1:05 a.m. ET).

RESULTS: Qualifying

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