Vanthoor Leads Nürburgring Pre-Qualifying for WRT

Dries Vanthoor led for Team WRT in Saturday’s Pre-Qualifying session for round two of GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup at the Nürburgring.

Vanthoor paced the 90-minute session with a time of 1:54.990 onboard the Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo that the Belgian shares with Charles Weerts and Christopher Mies.

Thomas Preining was second-quickest in the No. 40 GPX Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R that led until Vanthoor came to the fore with 40 minutes left on the clock.

The top two drivers were separated by 0.025 seconds, while third-placed Maro Engel finished a further 0.015 seconds back in the No. 4 HRT Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo.

James Calado put AF Corse’s No. 51 Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 fourth in the classification after the best car from the Italian manufacturer only managed 12th in Free Practice.

GPX Racing had a strong session with its No. 12 Porsche coming through in fifth courtesy of Mathieu Jaminet.

The Frenchman lapped just ahead of Christopher Haase in the No. 25 Sainteloc Racing Audi and the best of the Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evos driven by Dennis Lind.

Quickest in Silver Cup was Dinamic Motorsport Porsche driver Mikkel O. Pedersen, while Andrea Bertolini was best in Pro-Am for AF Corse. These two drivers placed eighth and ninth overall.

Unlike Free Practice which was red-flagged for an accident involving Team WRT’s Silver Cupp class Audi, Pre-Qualifying ran without major incident.

The AKKA-ASP Mercedes-AMG that led free practice in the hands of Raffaele Marciello was 17th in the Pre-Qualifying order.

Next up for is qualifying to decide the grid for tomorrow’s six-hour race. The first of three 15-minute sessions gets underway at 7:10 p.m. local time (1:10 p.m. EST).

RESULTS: Pre-Qualifying