No. 32 BMW Receives Grid Penalty for Qualifying Incident

Team WRT’s No. 32 BMW M4 GT3 EVO has received a five-place grid drop for the incident involving the No. 17 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo during qualifying, which has cost it pole position for this afternoon’s GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup race at the Nürburgring.

Charles Weerts made contact with Jules Gounon during the second of three qualifying sessions earlier on Saturday, which resulted in the No. 17 Mercedes-AMG spinning into the barriers.

While WRT then went on to capture pole position for the penultimate Endurance Cup race of the season, stewards later found Weerts at fault for the incident and handed the No. 32 BMW a five-place grid penalty for the race.

As a result, the No. 98 ROWE Racing BMW will start from pole position, joined on the front row by the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3.

The No. 17 Mercedes-AMG, meanwhile, is due to start last although the car remains a question mark for the start of the race due to the damage suffered in the impact with the barriers.

Saturday morning’s second qualifying session also saw contact between the No. 50 AF Corse Ferrari and No. 25 Sainteloc Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II, for which stewards have handed the Ferrari a five-place grid penalty.

However, the Ferrari was already due to start at the back of the grid as it did not set a time in the final segment of qualifying.

Additionally, Garage 59’s No. 59 McLaren 720s GT3 Evo also received a five-place grid penalty after Joseph Loake made contact with Conrad Laursen’s No. 74 Kessel Racing Ferrari during Qualifying 1.