Vanthoor Scores WRT’s First Sprint Cup Pole With BMW

Dries Vanthoor delivered Team WRT’s first Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Sprint Cup pole position with the BMW M4 GT3 ahead of Race 2 at Misano.

The Belgian driver produced a late 1:30.976 flyer to lead Sunday’s qualifying session in the No. 32 BMW that he shares with fellow three-time series champion Charles Weerts.

The improvement as the clock ticked down to zero bumped Sainteloc Junior Team Audi driver Patric Niederhauser off the top spot by eight-hundredths of a second.

Niederhauser then registered two overall fastest sectors on his attempt to regain the pole, but the Swiss driver’s third sector wasn’t as strong and kept Vanthoor ahead.

It still represented a significant improvement on Sainteloc’s starting position for Saturday’s 60-minute race, after the No. 25 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II of Niederhauser and Erwan Bastard was sent to the back of the grid due to an engine change.

Third in qualifying for Race 2 went to Maxime Martin, who shares the No. 46 WRT BMW with Valentino Rossi.

Konsta Lappalainen was fourth in the No. 14 Emil Frey Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 that finished second in the previous race. The winning Akkodis ASP Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo qualified 11th for Sunday’s contest in the hands of Timur Boguslavskiy.

Christopher Haase completed the overall top five for Audi squad Comtoyou Racing, one place ahead of the Gold Cup pole-sitting Sainteloc Audi driven by Simon Gachet.

Nicola Marinangelli topped the Silver Cup times in AF Corse’s No. 71 Ferrari after posting a 1:32.356 benchmark to lead the opening half of the two-part qualifying session.

The Bronze Cup pole went to the No. 126 Imperiale Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 courtesy of a 1:32.813 from Dmitry Gvazava.

The fourth race of the GTWC Europe Sprint Cup season starts at 2 p.m. CEST (8 a.m. EDT).

RESULTS: Qualifying 2