Akkodis ASP Beats Iron Lynx to Pole in Wet Qualifying

Jules Gounon made a late improvement to put Akkodis ASP on pole for the 3 Hours of the Nürburgring after a battle with Iron Lynx in the last of three qualifying sessions.

Gounon, Raffaele Marciello and Timur Boguslavskiy overcame wet conditions to claim their second pole of the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup with a combined average time of 2:09.233.

It came after Marciello led the opening session before Boguslavskiy kept the No. 88 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo on top of the aggregate leaderboard with sixth in Q2.

However, Jordan Pepper moved the No. 63 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 onto provisional pole in Q3 as the lap times dropped with a dry line emerging.

The South African produced a 2:06.319 flyer to transform a 0.137-second deficit into a lead of two-tenths, but Gounon responded and returned Akkodis ASP to the top spot with a 2:06.750 that put the No. 88 Mercedes-AMG crew ahead by 0.130 seconds on average.

Despite missing out on the pole, Iron Lynx drivers Pepper, Mirko Bortolotti and Andrea Caldarelli secured their first front-row start of the Endurance Cup season.

Maro Engel, Luca Stolz and Fabian Schiller qualified third for the GetSpeed-run Al Manar Racing organization, as the No. 87 Akkodis ASP trio of Lorenzo Ferrari, Thomas Drouet and Maximilian Goetz took fourth to create a Mercedes-AMG second row.

Schiller ended up setting the fastest lap of qualifying with a 2:06.179 towards the end of Q3. Some teams prepared slick tires for a potential changeover that would have mixed up the order, but wets remained the compound of choice.

The overall top five was completed by Attempto Racing’s No. 40 Tresor Orange Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II driven by Ricardo Feller, Mattia Drudi and Dennis Marschall.

Lamborghini team K-PAX Racing was sixth, ahead of the Gold Cup-leading No. 157 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG that went second overall in Q3 with Marius Zug driving.

Audi outfits Sainteloc Junior Team and Comtoyou Racing were eighth and ninth, with the No. 98 ROWE Racing BMW M4 GT3 rounding out the top ten.

ROWE drivers Nick Yelloly, Philipp Eng and Marco Wittmann saw their Endurance Cup lead over Gounon, Marciello and Boguslavskiy reduced to seven points based on the extra point available for pole.

Despite missing out on the overall top spot, Lamborghini teams claimed pole in three other classes.

Iron Dames led the way in Bronze Cup, as Silver Cup pole honors went to the No. 85 Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini crew.

Fellow Lamborghini team Barwell Motorsport topped Pro-Am after a qualifying run that included a strong Q3 showing from Dennis Lind.

Qualifying included two red flags split between the first and final sessions.

The first stoppage was caused by a spin for AF Corse Ferrari Pro-Am driver Louis Machiels at the Michael-Schumacher-S, whereas the Q3 interruption came later in the lap following a rotation for Madpanda Motorsport’s Ezequiel Companc.

The penultimate race of the GTWC Europe Endurance Cup season starts at 2:45 p.m. local time (8:45 a.m. EDT).

RESULTS: Qualifying (combined)