Marschall Puts Bronze Ferrari on Magny-Cours Race 1 Pole

Dennis Marschall put Kessel Racing’s Bronze Cup-entered No. 74 Ferrari 296 GT3 on overall pole position in qualifying for GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Sprint Cup Race 1 at Magny-Cours.

The German racer steered the blue-liveried Ferrari to a best lap of 1:35.856 to outpace the No. 63 GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 of Luca Engstler by 0.238 seconds.

As was the case with the two previous Sprint Cup rounds at Zandvoort and Misano, qualifying was split into two separate groups to allow sufficient track space for the 40-car grid.

Engstler initially went quickest in the first group for Pro and Gold Cup cars, overcoming an initial lap time deletion for track limits by posting a 1:36.094.

Only Marschall was able to surpass that effort in the group dedicated to Silver and Bronze Cup entrants, becoming the second Bronze Cup driver this season to take overall pole after Lionspeed GP’s Bastian Buus did so for Race 1 at Zandvoort.

Patric Niederhauser qualified third overall in the No. 96 Rutronik Racing Porsche, followed by AF Corse driver Alessio Rovera.

Rovera was initially left without a lap time after multiple track limit violations and looked to be starting last overall, only for his 1:36.230 time to be reinstated after the session. This put the Italian fourth on the grid.

As a result, the No. 111 CSA Racing McLaren 720S GT3 Evo of Jim Pla was bumped to fifth, ahead of the Silver Cup-leading No. 52 AF Corse Ferrari in the hands of Marco Siebert.

Lucas Auer took seventh aboard the No. 48 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, one spot ahead of brandmate Luca Stolz in the No. 9 Boutsen VDS-entered example.

Kobe Pauwels and Chris Lulham rounded out the overall top ten in the No. 21 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo and No. 69 Emil Frey Racing Ferrari, with the latter taking Gold Cup pole in the process.

The opening Sprint Cup race of the weekend kicks off at 8:45 p.m. CEST (2:45 p.m. EST).