+ Provisional Result: Qualifying 1
+ Provisional result: Qualifying 2
Lluc Ibañez and Tom Lebbon proved the class of the field across the two qualifying sessions at Hockenheim, scoring a pole each for the NM Racing Team Mercedes-AMG and Elite Motorsport McLaren respectively.
Spaniard Ibañez took control of a very tight opening session, putting the #15 Mercedes-AMG onto top spot by just 0.003s ahead of the impressive Erik Evans in the Academy Motorsport Ford Mustang.
Second qualifying was also decided by fine margins, with a superb effort from Lebbon landing the #78 McLaren Artura a third pole from the last four races, keeping up the momentum for the championship-leading crew.
The scorching German sun bathed the track as the cars headed out for the first qualifying segment, with Silver entries getting their own sessions – as at Misano – and Pro-Am and Am runners combined in the other to create greater opportunity for clear laps.
Having looked strong during practice, the Ford Mustangs thrived on Hockenheim’s long straights, with Nathan Vanspringel leading the early times before Evans took over. The benchmark then cycled through several other drivers before Evans put in what looked like being the session’s best, only for Ibañez to sneak past by a tiny margin on his very final effort.
Evans held second ahead of Benjamin Lariche in the Team Speedcar Audi that runs second in the points. That could be vital, with Josh Rattican starting alongside in fourth in the #78 Elite McLaren that heads the championship. Viny Beltramelli put his JSB Competition Porsche fifth ahead of Roberto Faria’s Racing Spirit of Léman Aston Martin.
Circuit familiarity played a part in the Pro-Am pole fight, with German GT4 regular Alon Gabbay starring. A guest entry for this weekend, Gabbay did enough to put the #31 W&S Motorsport Porsche onto top spot in the class, just ahead of Jon Lancaster in the #812 RAFA Racing McLaren. Title-chaser Finn Zulauf was third for W&S, ahead of the Nova Racing Cayman of Edvin Hellsten. Stanislav Safronov will start fifth in the championship-leading Mirage Racing Aston Martin, but a fair way back from Gabbay on the overall grid.
Pascal Huteau began what would be a dominant two sessons for Schumacher CLRt by claiming Am class pole, the #55 Alpine finishing clear of Kevin Jimenez in the rival GPA Racing Aston Martin. Adrien Paviot put the #300 Team Speedcar Audi third.
As the drivers swapped seats for second qualifying, another tight fight played out, even if the heat meant the lap record from 2023 would remain intact.
Lebbon wasted little time in putting the #78 McLaren out front to set the pace, and then engaged in a great fight with the Code Racing Alpine driven by Antoine Leclerc. The Frenchman jumped ahead, and then improved again to hold an advantage of 0.5s at one point, only for Lebbon to fight back and pull 0.13s on the Alpine. Leclerc took one more run and trimmed the gap to 0.091s at the flag.
Marco Signoretti backed up the great work of Evans in Q1 to put the #61 Academy Mustang third, with Mateo Villagomez fourth in the #82 Racing Spirit of Léman Aston. Tom Emson was fifth fastest in the sister Elite McLaren ahead of Robert Consani.
Max Kronberg secured a fourth Pro-Am pole of the year for the #30 W&S Motorsport Porsche, a few places ahead of Cindy Gudet in the #66 Matmut Évolution Toyota GR Supra. Tano Neumann helped the guest W&S entry to third ahead of Sacha Bottemanne in the #30 AV Racing Porsche. Aleksandr Vaintrub made it two top-five starts for the #7 Mirage Racing Aston, which will have a fight on its hands to hang on to the class lead.
There was no stopping Schumacher CLRT in Am, as Laurent Hurgon scorched to a second pole of the weekend in a superb 10th overall. Jean-Mathieu Leandri made it an Alpine one-two in the class aboard his Chazel Technologie Course car, with new entry Charles Dawson claiming third in the #16 NM Racing Team Mercedes-AMG he shares with Andy Cantu.
The first race for the GT4 European Series Powered by RAFA Racing Club is set to start at 15:50 CEST.
