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Bortolotti, Stolz Score Nürburgring Poles

Mirko Bortolotti, Luca Stolz score poles for Blancpain GT finale races…

Photo: Patrick Hecq/SRO

Mirko Bortolotti and Luca Stolz each scored one pole position in qualifying for the Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup finale at the Nürburgring on Saturday morning.

Bortolotti took his No. 63 Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracan GT3 to the top of the timesheets in the first session to secure pole for Race 1 before Black Falcon’s Stolz completed a similar feat for Race 2.

The GRT driver and his teammate Christian Engelhart are third in the championship and scored a bonus point for the pole position, closing the gap to 15.5 points.

Stolz wrapped up a surprise Race 2 pole late in the session in his Silver Cup-entered No. 6 Mercedes-AMG GT3 that he shares with Hubert Haupt.

He posted a time of 1:54.007 to go a mere 0.006 seconds quicker than championship leader Raffaele Marciello who will start his No. 88 AKKA ASP Mercedes from second on Sunday.

Marciello’s co-driver Michael Meadows could only manage a tenth-place result in qualifying for this afternoon’s Race 1, meanwhile.

They are tied on points with Alex Riberas and Christopher Mies but the Belgian Audi Club Team WRT drivers’ title hopes took a blow when Mies went off track in Qualifying 2, ruling him out of the rest of the session.

He did set a time good enough for 14th position but damaged his No. 1 Audi R8 LMS GT3. The session was red-flagged for 15 minutes during the clean-up.

Mies posted on Twitter soon after the incident that the brakes failed on the entry into a corner and that he expects the team to prepare the car in time for Race 1, in which Riberas will start third.

Nico Bastian picked up Silver Cup honors for Race 1 while Kessel Racing’s Carlo van Dam and Piti Bhirombhakdi are on Pro-Am Cup pole for both races.

Race 1 is scheduled for 2:05 p.m. local time and will be streamed in most regions on the GT World YouTube channel.

RESULTS: Qualifying 1
RESULTS: Qualifying 2

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

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