GruppeM Mercedes Trio Score Kyalami 9H Pole

Photo: Gruppe C/Mercedes-AMG

GruppeM Racing has claimed pole for Saturday’s Kyalami 9 Hour, the second round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge powered by Pirelli season.

Maro Engel, Mikael Grenier and Raffaele Marciello combined for a best three-lap average of 1:42.617 in the No. 999 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo to edge out the No. 32 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 of Dries Vanthoor, Sheldon van der Linde and Charles Weerts by 0.346 seconds.

Marciello set a benchmark 1:42.029 in Q3 that was the quickest single lap, with all three of the GruppeM drivers quickest in their respective sessions.

It marked the car’s second consecutive IGTC pole position after Engel scored a record-breaking lap in the Pole Shootout for the Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour.

The No. 33 WRT BMW of Philipp Eng, Augusto Farfus and Maxime Martin will start third on the grid, ahead of the No. 66 Tressor Attempto Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II driven by Mattia Drudi, Ricardo Feller and Patric Niederhauser in fourth.

Attempto’s sister Audi completed the top five with drivers Markus Winkelhock, Dennis Marschall and Alex Aka.

Pro-Am class pole honors went to the No. 75 SunEnergy1 Racing Mercedes of Jules Gounon, Kenny Habul and Yannick Mettler, who combined to qualify sixth overall with a 1:43.477 average.

An impressive 1:42.347 lap by Earl Bamber helped put the No. 4 Grove Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R second on the Pro-Am grid, meanwhile.

Unlike previous editions, the field was determined by three 15-minute qualifying sessions, which took the average of all three drivers in each GT3 car.

The No. 3 NGK Pablo Clark Racing Mercedes of Mikaeel Pitamber was quickest of the three Kyalami Supercup entries, which will contest the opening hour of the race only as solo drivers.

The Kyalami 9 Hour gets underway Saturday at 1 p.m. local time (6 a.m. ET) with live coverage on SRO’s GT World YouTube page.

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