Marciello Puts AKKA-ASP on Pole for Zandvoort Race 2

Raffaele Marciello narrowly beat Dries Vanthoor to pole position for the second race of the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS round at Zandvoort.

Marciello set the No. 88 AKKA-ASP Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo on top in Sunday morning’s 20-minute qualifying session with a time of 1:34.304.

This put the Italian, who shares the car with Timur Boguslavskiy, just 0.019 seconds ahead of reigning series champion and current points leader Vanthoor in the No. 32 Team WRT Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo.

Marciello and Boguslavskiy continued their form into Sunday after finishing second in yesterday’s race from seventh on the 27-car grid.

It marked Marciello’s first pole of the Sprint Cup season. The Mercedes-AMG factory driver qualified first on two occasions for AKKA-ASP during the 2020 campaign.

ADAC GT Masters champion Christian Engelhart qualified an impressive third in Dinamic Motorsport’s Porsche 911 GT3 R with a time of 1:34.439, at the wheel of a car that up to this point had struggled to make an impression on the weekend.

Engelhart will share the second row of the grid with Albert Costa who drives the No. 163 Emil Frey Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo.

Race 1 winner Alex Fontana, whose Emil Frey co-driver Ricardo Feller took pole for Saturday’s bout, ranked 16th in Race 2 qualifying.

The Swiss driver qualified behind four other Silver Cup competitors, including class pole-sitter Pierre-Alexandre Jean who placed fifth overall in the No. 107 CMR Bentley Continental GT3.

Jean edged ahead of Toksport WRT Mercedes driver Maro Engel by 0.030 seconds.

Williams Formula 1 reserve driver Jack Aitken qualified eighth in the No. 114 Emil Frey Lamborghini, in front of Christopher Haase in Sainteloc Racing’s No. 25 Audi and the Silver Cup Mercedes-AMGs from Toksport and AKKA-ASP.

Konstantin Tereschenko’s No. 87 AKKA-ASP car was handed a three-place grid drop after the session due to the driver returning to the track after crossing the pit entry line.

Henrique Chaves clinched pole in Pro-Am, with the Barwell Motorsport driver qualifying ahead of Jonny Adam and Andrea Bertolini.

The fourth race of the GTWC Europe Sprint Cup season gets underway at 2:30 p.m. CEST (8:30 p.m. EST).

RESULTS: Qualifying 2