Mortara Takes Pole in Hard-Fought Macau Qualifying

Photo: FIA GT World Cup

Edoardo Mortara has taken pole position for the FIA GT World Cup qualifying race in a close-fought qualifying session dominated by Mercedes-AMG GT3s at Macau on Friday afternoon.

The Mercedes-AMG Team Driving Academy driver posted a time of 2:17.565 in the closing stages after battling with Daniel Juncadella, Raffaele Marciello, Augusto Farfus and Robin Frijns throughout the 30-minute session.

Juncadella will line up alongside Mortara after setting a lap time 0.282 seconds slower than the five-time Macau winner.

The top four grid positions were secured by Mercedes-AMG drivers.

Maro Engel and Marciello will start from third and fourth in their GruppeM-run Mercedes, with Audi Sport Team WRT’s Nico Mueller the best non-AMG entrant in fifth.

Frijns looked set to take a strong grid position after topping Free Practice 2 earlier in the day but a collision with the barrier took him out of contention for much of the session.

As a result, the No. 1 Audi R8 LMS will take the start of the qualifying race from 17th.

The qualifying race will get underway at 12:25 p.m. local time on Saturday.

RESULTS: Qualifying

Jake Kilshaw

Jake Kilshaw is a UK-based journalist. He is a graduate of Politics and International Relations.