GruppeM on Pole in Red-Flagged Gulf 12H Qualifying

Mercedes-AMG Team GruppeM Racing will start from pole position in the Lenovo Gulf 12 Hours after Maro Engel, Mikael Grenier and Luca Stolz came out on top in an incident-filled qualifying session that was delayed for an hour due to barrier repairs.

The No. 99 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo posted an average time of 1:51.272 to lead a 1-2 for the German brand, joined on the front row by the No. 13 Mercedes-AMG Team 2 Seas entry of Jules Gounon, Maximilian Goetz and Fabian Schiller.

Herberth Motorsport will start from third overall and on Pro-Am pole position thanks to a quick time in the fourth and final session by Matteo Cairoli.

The Italian driver, who was also on pole for the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa earlier this year, reeled off a 1:50.592 in the No. 33 Porsche 911 GT3 R, which combined with previous efforts from co-drivers Antares Au and Tim Heinemann resulted in an average time of 1:51.731.

The No. 46 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 driven by Valentino Rossi, Dries Vanthoor and Nick Yelloly qualified fourth, while Lucas Auer, Lorenzo Ferrari and Frank Bird completed the top five in the second GruppeM Mercedes-AMG.

Qualifying on Saturday evening was halted by an hour due to barrier repairs in the second session, triggered when Stefano Constantini crashed the No. 12 Car Collection Motorsport Porsche at Turn 4.

Constantini walked away from the crash unaided, but inflicted heavy damage to both the car and the barriers in the impact, so much so that the resulting barrier repairs took an hour to complete.

A second red flag followed in the third session caused by the No. 76 7Tsix Mercedes-AMG which hit the barriers at Turn 5 with Matthew Topham at the wheel.

Alexander West, Marvin Kirchhoefer and Louis Prette qualified sixth in the No. 88 Garage 59 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo, beating Optimum Motorsport’s No. 27 machine to second place in Pro-Am.

Mark Radcliffe, Ollie Millroy and Rob Bell meanwhile outqualified the No. 32 Team WRT BMW of Philipp Eng, Sheldon van der Linde and Charles Weerts by a mere 0.004 seconds.

Dustin Blattner, Constantin Dressler and Joel Sturm will start from Am pole in the No. 21 Car Collection Porsche in ninth overall, while the No. 59 Garage 59 McLaren rounded out the top ten.

The Lenovo Gulf 12 Hours starts Sunday at 10 a.m. local time (1 a.m. ET).

RESULTS: Qualifying (combined)