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#77 McLaren (Rattican/Emson) takes Race 1 pole position in style!
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Series returnees Pla/Beaubelique (#83 Audi) on Pro-Am pole in Race 1, Hurgon/Ferté (#55 Alpine) lead Am Cup
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Qualifying 2 develops very differently and sees championship leaders emerge
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Final overall Pole Position of the season for #2 BMW (Schrey/Piana). Pro-Am and Am Cup champions #42 Audi and #10 Porsche lead their categories
The first Qualifying session in Barcelona took a little while to heat up. A few early lap times by Alpine teams were noted, but then it became a true two-team affair between Team Speedcar and Elite Motorsport with Entire Race Engineering. The two Audis and two McLarens went at each other as soon as the session hit the halfway mark.
Jim Pla, returning to the series for this last event, put in a few blistering laps in the #83 Team Speedcar Audi, putting him on top of the rankings for a while. Benjamin Lariche did the same in the #3 Audi that keeps him and Robert Consani still in the title race. But no matter how strong both Audi crews performed, the #77 (Rattican/Emson) and #78 (Mitchell/Denning) McLaren cars continued to rise to the challenge and found the exceptional pace they already displayed in yesterday's Pre-Qualifying.
In the end, Rattican/Emson will be at the very front row of this afternoon's Race 1 starting grid in the #77 McLaren, with Pla/Beaubelique in the #83 Audi next to them. On the second row, it's McLaren-Audi again with the #78 and #3 cars respectively. Am Cup pole position for race one was secured further down the field by Laurent Hurgon and Alain Ferté in the #55 Autosport GP LS Group Performance Alpine A110 GT4 EVO.
In Qualifying 1 there really was no sign of the championship leading #2 BMW of Michael Schrey and Gabriele Piana. But the latter was on a proper mission in Q2, and drove the Hofor Racing by Bonk Motorsport BMW to a convincing overall pole position for tomorrow's Race 2 in a very different qualifying session altogether. Next to them on the front row will be the #22 Allied-Racing Porsche (Hartvig/Schaap), while Mitchell/Denning will take another P3 start in their #78 McLaren.
Pro-Am and Am pole positions for Race 2 were secured by both cars who already have the 2023 title in the bag: Guilvert/Hamon lead the way in Pro-Am with their #42 Audi from P11 overall, and Varutti/Piguet do the same in their Am Cup winning #10 Porsche from an impressive 8th overall.
Pole positions decided, all that's left now is the full-on battle for the Silver Cup title in the GT4 European Series Powered by RAFA Racing Club. Race 1 opens the final debates at 16.50 CEST this Saturday afternoon. And Race 2 at Barcelona concludes the season tomorrow, Sunday, at 11.20 CEST.
Both 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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Barcelona – Qualifying 1 – Results
Barcelona – Qualifying 2 - Results