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Tambay Tops Pre-Qualifying as Allied Porsche Crashes

Sainteloc Audi tops timing charts in red flag-shortened Pre-Qualifying practice…

Photo: Patrick Hecq/SRO

Sainteloc Racing Audi driver Adrien Tambay posted the fastest lap in Pre-Qualifying for the 3 Hours of Monza while an accident for the Allied-Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R forced an early halt to Saturday’s second and final practice session.

Former DTM driver Tambay scaled the 43-car order with a time of 1:47.673 in the No. 25 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo that he shares with Alexandre Cougnaud and Christopher Haase.

The Frenchman’s effort came amid a flurry of quick laps that settled the top positions in Pre-Qualifying around half an hour into the 90-minute session.

The red flags were then brought out with 16 minutes left when Jan Kasperlik crashed Allied-Racing’s Porsche at the second Lesmo corner after touching the outside gravel.

Kasperlik walked away from the damaged Porsche after a heavy hit, while damage to the right-side barriers prompted the stewards to call off the rest of the session.

That ensured Tambay came away with the fastest lap, going 0.124 seconds quicker than Marco Wittmann in the second-placed No. 34 Walkenhorst Motorsport BMW M6 GT3.

After ranking highly in Free Practice, Nelson Panciatici went third-quickest in Pre-Qualifying for Pro-Am entrant CMR in the No. 107 Bentley Continental GT3.

Panciatici posted a 1:47.907 to beat two other drivers who went under the 1m 48s barrier.

Fellow Pro-Am car drivers Eddie Cheever of Sky-Tempesta Racing and Nico Bastian of GetSpeed Performance completed the overall top-five and the top-three in class.

Raffaele Marciello ended up sixth in the No. 88 AKKA-ASP Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo on a 1:48.055, with Andrea Caldarelli close behind in seventh for the Orange 1 FFF Racing Team Lamborghini squad.

The No. 71 Iron Lynx Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 placed 14th in Pre-Qualifying after topping Free Practice with Antonio Fuoco at the helm.

RESULTS: Pre-Qualifying

Daniel Lloyd is a UK-based reporter for Sportscar365, covering the FIA World Endurance Championship, Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS and the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, among other series.

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