Lionspeed Drivers Feller, Buus Roar to Brands Hatch Poles

Porsche squad Lionspeed GP swept to both pole positions for the opening round of the GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Sprint Cup season opener at Brands Hatch after impressive efforts from Ricardo Feller and Bastian Buus.

The pair were only formally confirmed at the wheel of the No. 80 Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo in the days leading up to the event but have now become the first drivers since Charles Weerts and Dries Vanthoor in a WRT Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II at Misano in 2022 to claim both poles for a Sprint Cup fixture.

Feller topped the opening session in Kent with a 1:22.722 that was a quarter of a second faster than the opposition.

He will be joined on the front row by the No. 50 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo of Arthur Leclerc, who posted a 1:22.971.

Third fastest was the pick of the WRT BMW M4 GT3 EVOs, the No. 30 Silver Cup entry of Matisse Lismont managing a 1:23.181.

Joining him on the second row will be the No. 3 Verstappen Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Dani Juncadella, who had earlier topped the practice timesheets, and was a half a tenth slower than the BMW.

Fifth fastest was the No. 14 Emil Frey Racing Ferrari of Konsta Lappalainen while rounding out the top six was Morris Schuring in the No. 2 Boutsen VDS Porsche, the pair split by 0.003 seconds.

Seventh fastest was the Gold Cup polesitter for race one, Dylan Pereira at the wheel of the No. 99 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi, which managed a 1:23.259.

Just one second separated the top 24 cars, but outside of those was the No. 7 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo of Nicki Thiim that won the Endurance Cup opener at Paul Ricard but could only manage 31st after losing several laps for exceeding track limits.

Despite the threat of looming rain, the second session remained dry and Buus went fractionally faster than his team-mate to post a 1:22.676 to top the timesheets by a tenth of a second.

Chris Lulham ensured another strong grid start for the No. 3 Mercedes with a 1:22.778 to qualify on the front row, while Max Hesse was the best of the BMW drivers in third in the No. 46 he will share with Valentino Rossi.

Maro Engel was fourth fastest in the No. 48 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG thanks to a 1:22.851 after being just 0.025 seconds slower than Hesse.

The third row for Race 2 will be comprised of the No. 10 Boutsen VDS Porsche of Gilles Magnus that took Gold Cup pole and Marvin Kirchhoefer in the No. 59 Garage 59 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo.

Further back in ninth spot was the Silver Cup polesitter, the No. 30 BMW also achieving a lockout thanks to Ignacio Montenegro.

The session came to an early halt with a minute remaining after Matteo Villagomez was stranded in the Stirlings gravel in the No. 35 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin.

But it was another tight qualifying with the top 27 cars separated by a second this time around.

The first hour-long race of the Sprint Cup season is due to begin at 11:15 a.m. local time on Sunday (6:15 a.m. ET).

RESULTS: Qualifying 1/Qualifying 2