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clean sweep for #3 Team Speedcar Audi
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#20 EastSide Motorsport Mercedes-AMG confirms as well, takes Pro-Am pole in Race 1
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#42 Saintéloc Junior Team heads Pro-Am in Race 2
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#10 AVR-Avvatar Porsche rises to the occasion and claims double Am pole position
Challenging Q1 for championship leaders
First out of the starting blocks was the #8 Xwift Racing Events Toyota (Potty/Cheli), trying to make the most out of qualifying in the newly sourced car. But it was not to be and the championship's number two would only just make the top 20. A troublesome first session as well for the outright leader: Schrey/Piana had to steer their #2 Hofor Racing by Bonk Motorsport BMW back into the pitlane for adjustments, and only managed P14 overall.
Struggling leaders open the door for charging challengers, and the #3 Team Speedcar Audi (Lariche/Consani) didn't hesitate. A very confident 1'40.524 secured their pole position for Race 1, with the #22 Allied-Racing Porsche (Hartvig/Schaap) alongside them on the first row. Behind them it's a Mercedes-AMG duo, with Ibanez/Papadopulos in the #15 NM Racing Team Mercedes-AMG, and the #20 EastSide Motorsport car of Bulatov/Mayer on P4, confirming excellent weekend form with a Pro-Am pole position. Am championship leaders Varutti/Piguet seemed less dominant in Misano's earlier sessions, but blitzed it again in Q1 to head their class on the Race 1 grid.
Race 2 pole positions taken in style
The dominant teams chose to wait it out somewhat in the opening stages of Misano's second qualifying session. That gave a number of teams the chance to take front stage, most notably the #78 Elite Motorsport McLaren (Mitchell/Denning) who showed some good pace early on.
Halfway through the 20 minutes, the big hitters put the hammer down and it all came together for the #3 Team Speedcar Audi, sweeping qualifying to start Race 2 from pole position. A late push by the #74 Racing Spirit of Léman Aston Martin (Weyrich/Villagomez) earns them P2.
Both in Pro-Am and Am, the championship leaders left no one in doubt: Hamon/Guilvert will head Race 2 in the #42 Saintéloc Junior Team Audi from P5 overall, and man on a mission Alban Varutti puts him and Julien Piguet on top of Am in the #10 AVR-Avvatar Porsche from 18th overall.
Pole positions all decided, time now to look ahead to Race 1, and that's later today at 17.30 CEST.
Race 2 follows tomorrow, Sunday, July 16 at 10.25 CEST.
Both qualifying and the races will be streamed live in English, French and German via the GT4 European Series website and the GTWorld YouTube channel.
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Misano – Qualifying 1 – Results
Misano – Qualifying 2 – Results
