The top two championship contenders secured a pole position apiece in the GT4 European Series Powered by RAFA Racing Club’s first-ever Qualifying at Jeddah, setting up a thrilling showdown.
Josh Rattican controlled the first half to snatch pole for himself and Elite Motorsport McLaren team-mate Tom Lebbon. Usually this would ease the points pressure with the British crew also securing a bonus point for the result, but Robert Consani then evened the score in the second half, putting the Audi he shares with Benjamin Lariche out front for race two.
Rattican showed he would be the man to beat from the start of Q1, repaying the efforts of the Elite team which had worked through the night to correct the technical problem that sidelined the car from Free Practice. Rattican got the better of the sister car in the hands of Alex Denning to take pole, as Lluc Ibañez then squeezed ahead of Lariche in the fight for third. Jamie Day rounded out the top five in the Racing Spirit of Léman Aston Martin he shares with Mateo Villagomez.
With ground to make up, Consani made no mistake in Q2, producing the fastest time of the weekend to keep the #3 Audi in the fight. The Frenchman’s 2:09.787s effort cut almost half a second off Rattican’s time from Q1, and left Consani 0.3s clear of Tom Emson in the second Elite McLaren. Benjamin Lessennes and Ricardo van der Ende will start third for L’Espace Bienvenue BMW, with Lebbon and Rattican lining up fourth. Gabriele Piana and Berkay Besler completed the top five in the #12 Borusan Otomotiv Motorsport BMW.
A pair of Porsches shone in Pro-Am, with the returning Alban Varutti and Noam Abramczyk sharing the poles. Varutti showed the AVR-Avvatar team has lost none of its speed by going sixth fastest overall in Q1 to finish comfortably ahead of the fight between the class championship contenders. Stanislav Safronov put the #7 Mirage Racing Aston Martin into second, just ahead of Finn Zulauf in the points-leading W&S Motorsport Porsche.
Paul Petit was fourth in Q1, but his team-mate Abramczyk stormed to his first pole of the year in Q2, beating Varutti’s team-mate Julin Piguet to top spot. Max Kronberg put W&S into a strong position by claiming third on the grid, with Aleksandr Vaintrub only managing seventh in the rival Aston Martin.
Andy Cantu put himself one point away from second in the Am championship with the bonus score for pole in the #16 NM Racing Team Mercedes-AMG in Q1. The American beat Antoni de Barn in the class battle, but it would be de Barn’s team-mate for this weekend, Jean-Mathieu Leandri, who would go one better in Q2 and secure race two pole for the Chazel Technologie Course BMW.