Kirchhoefer Storms to Magny-Cours Sunday Pole

Marvin Kirchhoefer took a dominant pole position in qualifying for GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Sprint Cup Race 2 at Magny-Cours, outpacing nearest rival Jordan Pepper by over half a second.

The German steered the No. 59 Garage 59 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo to a best time of 1:35.508, leaving him 0.560 seconds clear of Pepper’s No. 63 GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2.

The result marked Kirchhoefer’s second pole position of the Sprint Cup season after he also led qualifying for Race 2 at Misano last month.

Thierry Vermeulen qualified third overall and captured Gold Cup pole position aboard the No. 69 Emil Frey Racing Ferrari 296 GT3, outpacing the pair of AF Corse-entered examples driven by Arthur Leclerc and Vincent Abril.

Kelvin van der Linde picked up sixth in the No. 32 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 Evo despite a hair-raising moment for the South African, nearly losing control over the car bouncing over the kerbs coming out of the final chicane.

Maxime Martin took seventh in the No. 9 Boutsen VDS Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, followed by Henrique Chaves’ No. 35 Walkenhorst Motorsport Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo.

The overall top ten was completed by the Simon Gachet-driven No. 111 CSA Racing McLaren 720S GT3 Evo and the No. 14 Emil Frey Racing Ferrari in the hands of Ben Green.

Jamie Day captured Silver Cup pole position in the No. 21 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin, while Dustin Blattner went fastest in Bronze Cup aboard the No. 74 Kessel Racing Ferrari.

38 cars are set to take the start for Sunday’s second and final Sprint Cup race of the weekend, with two withdrawals following on from Saturday evening’s opening contest.

The No. 64 Ford Mustang GT3 sustained damage after colliding with the No. 99 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II and will not be taking part, with HRT Ford Performance driver Romain Andriolo also receiving a ten-place grid penalty for the next race he participates in.

Meanwhile, the No. 112 CSA Racing McLaren has also been pulled from the remainder of the event after it was damaged when it hit the wall after contact with the No. 991 Paradine Competition BMW.

Race 2 at Magny-Cours kicks off at 3:15 p.m. CEST (9:15 a.m. EST).