Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin Snares Nürburgring Pole

The Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin of Marco Sorensen, Mattia Drudi and Nicki Thiim has taken pole for the penultimate round of the GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup season at the Nürburgring.

The No. 007 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo did not top any of the three segments of qualifying but its average of 1:53.591 was good enough to hand the crew pole by just over a tenth of a second from the GetSpeed Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Maxime Martin, Maxi Goetz and Fabian Schiller that managed an average of 1:53.718.

The No. 80 Lionspeed GP Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo that triumphed in the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa last time out was seemingly on course for pole after topping the averages following the first two sessions thanks to rapid laps from Ricardo Feller and Thomas Preining.

But Bastian Buus was only 11th quickest in Q3 and therefore the Porsche slipped to third on the averages with a 1:53.789.

Several of the McLaren 720S GT3 Evos starred during qualifying and the No. 59 Garage 59 entry of Joseph Loake, Dean Macdonald and Marvin Kirchhoefer qualified fourth with a 1:53.867 average.

That was fractionally faster than the No. 32 WRT BMW M4 GT3 EVO of Kelvin van der Linde, Charles Weerts and Jordan Pepper, but that crew was given a three-place penalty for Weerts making an unsafe manoeuvre in opening practice and will therefore start eighth.

Instead the 2 Seas Verstappen Racing Mercedes-AMG of Dani Juncadella, Chris Lulham and Jules Gounon will start fifth thanks to an 1:53.891 average, while the Gold Cup pole-sitting Garage 59 McLaren of Tom Fleming, Louis Prette and Benji Goethe was promoted sixth.

The overall championship-leading No. 48 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG of Lucas Auer, Luca Stolz and Maro Engel will begin the race seventh after a 1:54.021 average as the crew needs to finish fourth or higher to guarantee taking the title with a round to go.

The points-leading Silver Cup No. 30 WRT BMW of Ignacio Montenegro, Matisse Lismont and Amaury Cordeel also extended its advantage by qualifying on class pole in 17th overall.

It was one place ahead of the No. 222 2 Seas Mercedes-AMG of Kiern Jewiss, Charles Dawson and Reece Barr that took Bronze Cup top spot.

The Bronze points-leading No. 74 Kessel Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo will start fourth in class but does not feature Dustin Blattner in its lineup as he continues to recover from injuries suffered in his heavy Magny-Cours Sprint Cup crash earlier this month, with his place instead taken by Constantin Dressler.

Another late Ferrari lineup change concerned the No. 60 JMW machine, which has swapped to the Pro class from the Bronze division after Thierry Vermeulen and Konsta Lappalainen were drafted in to replace the Rolf Ineichen, who has injured a finger, and Thomas Kiefer. They qualified 36th overall.

The fastest time in qualifying was actually set by Ben Doerr at the wheel of the No. 23 RJN Silver Cup McLaren in the final segment with his 1:53.070 helping put the car 19th overall.

Doerr’s effort was almost two tenths faster than the next best of Max Hesse in the No. 46 WRT BMW that ended up 12th in the combined times.

Attention now turns to the three-hour race, which is due to begin at 3 p.m. CEST (9 a.m. EST).

RESULTS: Qualifying