Kjaergaard Leads Pre-Qualifying in Garage 59 McLaren

Garage 59 McLaren driver Nicolai Kjaergaard narrowly beat Mattia Drudi to the top spot in Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Sprint Cup Pre-Qualifying at Hockenheim.

Kjaergaard steered the No. 159 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo that he shares with Benjamin Goethe to a time of 1:38.487 with just over five minutes of the 80-minute session to go.

Among a flurry of late improvements in the 41-car field, the Danish driver initially hit the top of the leaderboard with a 1:38.551, only to be quickly eclipsed by a 1:38.545 from Drudi in Attempto Racing’s No. 40 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II.

Kjaergaard then shaved off enough time on his next lap to cement his McLaren as the fastest car on Friday afternoon.

It came after the Garage 59 driver went quickest earlier in Pre-Qualifying but had that effort deleted due to a track limits violation.

Several drivers had their lap times erased for the same reason including Dries Vanthoor and Christian Engelhart who also briefly went to the top of the order before descending.

Drudi settled for second but it was still a good day for the No. 40 Tresor Orange 1 Audi crew, after his co-driver Ricardo Feller led the morning’s wet-to-dry Free Practice run.

Raffaele Marciello ended up third overall in the points leading No. 88 Akkodis ASP Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo after registering a time of 1:38.646.

It was a strong Pre-Qualifying session for Emil Frey Racing which saw its pair of Ferrari 296 GT3s come through in fourth and sixth, separated by the Bronze Cup-leading No. 66 Attempto Audi driven by Dennis Marschall.

Gilles Magnus set the Gold Cup pace in seventh for the Comtoyou Racing Audi squad, ahead of Andrea Bertolini in AF Corse’s Bronze Cup Ferrari, Lamborghini factory driver Jordan Pepper and Silver Cup leader Lorenzo Patrese piloting an Attempto Audi.

Qualifying for this weekend’s first 60-minute GTWC Europe Sprint Cup race is scheduled for 9:50 a.m. local time (3:50 a.m. EDT) on Saturday morning.

RESULTS: Pre-Qualifying