+ Result, Qualifying 1, Circuit Paul Ricard
+ Result, Qualifying 2, Circuit Paul Ricard
Hendrik Still and Paul Petit were the stars of two quick-fire Qualifying sessions at Circuit Paul Ricard, with both drivers dipping under the old qualifying lap record on their ways to the top spots.
Still narrowly denied Gregory Guilvert in the opening session to claim race one pole for W&S Motorsport, while Guilvert’s team-mate went one better, putting the #8 Team Speedcar Audi at the front for Race Two.
Q1: Still on the move
For the vast majority of the opening qualifying segment it looked like Guilvert had the edge on everybody, only for Still to spring a surprise on the final lap.
Guilvert hit the front early and gradually trimmed his time back to keep his rivals chasing the black and green Audi. Hadrien David came closest to the benchmark, putting the #87 Matmut Évolution Toyota GR Supra under two tenths behind by the time the Silver runners headed back to the pits to allow the Pro-Am and Am cars their space.
Still headed out in the #32 Porsche and soon closed in, his outright best first sector helping him leapfrog Guilvert in the overall times on his final effort, grabbing pole by just 0.096s. However, Guilvert still scored the bonus point for starting on Silver class pole.
Behind Guilvert and David, Lluc Ibañez put the #15 NM Racing Team Mercedes-AMG fourth, ahead of the CMR Ginetta of Ethan Gialdini and Erik Evans in the Academy Motorsport Ford Mustang.
With Still on overall and Pro-Am pole, Viny Beltramelli took second in class for JSB Competition, with Stanislav Safronov third for Mirage Racing Aston Martin.
Jean-Mathieu Leandri secured Am class pole for Chazel Technologie Course, narrowly ahead of Cristoffer Brunnhagen’s Toyota Gazoo Racing Sweden GR Supra. Max Kronberg began his season in the class by going third fastest for W&S.
Q2: Records tumble as Petit goes big
Having come so close to the fastest time in Q1, Petit made no mistake in the #8 Audi, setting the fastest GT4 Europe lap ever around Circuit Paul Ricard to finish 0.6s clear of everybody.
The session was halted early on when the Lema Racing Mercedes-AMG lost a wheel and stopped out on track, but when running resumed soon after the Frenchman proved unstoppable – his 2:11.419s effort beating the former fastest lap by Enzo Joulié at this track last year by over 0.2s.
McKenzy Cresswell did the best job of the rest, initially securing second in the Elite Motorsport McLaren, while Jan Duran made it two third-place starts for the #67 Matmut Évolution Toyota. Senna van Walstijn was an impressive fifth on his debut with the #10 CMR Ginetta, while Benjamin Lessennes rounded out the top five for L’Espace Bienvenue BMW.
A great lap by Olivier Jouffret scored Pro-Am pole for Vic'TEAM Mercedes-AMG, ahead of Cindy Gudet’s Matmut Évolution Toyota and Thibaut Mogica in the #51 Ginetta.
Chazel Technologie Course made it a clean sweep of Am poles with Antoni de Barn backing up Leandri’s fine work from Q1 to go fastest, holding off the W&S Porsche of Daniel Blickle and Philippe Thalamy’s Team Speedcar Audi.
The session had a few high-profile casualties, most notably Robert Consani being forced to park his Team Speedcar Audi after a puncture. He was originally due to start at the back after having his best lap chalked off for track limits shortly before having to stop the car. However, his time was reinstated post-session, allowing he and Lariche to start second overall for Race Two – just ahead of the Elite McLaren – with team-mate Benjamin Lariche only managing 12th overall in Q1.