+ Result: Qualifying 1, Misano
+ Result: Qualifying 2, Misano
Team Speedcar’s Audis proved the class of the field in Qualifying at Misano with its Silver crews securing a pole position each.
Benjamin Lariche and Robert Consani scored their third pole of the season thanks to a commanding drive from Lariche, before the sister car of Paul Petit and Gregory Guilvert claimed top spot for Race 2 after a great run from Petit.
The team also claimed a Pro-Am pole thanks to Sacha Bottemanne and Viny Beltramelli in Q2, but Elite Motorsport denied a clean sweep with Charlie Robertson and Ravi Ramyead holding off the #3 Audi in Q1. The Am class poles were split between Mikael and Christoffer Brunnhagen’s GR Sweden Supra and the W&S Porsche of Daniel Blickle and Max Kronberg.
Q1: Lariche continues the fightback
While reigning champions Lariche and Consani may have suffered terrible luck so far, the one thing that has never been in doubt is their Qualifying pace, and Lariche again showed why you can never overlook the #1 Audi by claiming a third pole of the year.
After a Qualifying sweep at Monza, Lariche controlled the opening session, going fastest of all early on and then watching as Enrico Förderer (SR Motorsport by Schnitzelalm Mercedes-AMG), Sam Paley (TeamFloral Mustang), Guilvert and Lluc Ibañez (NM Racing Team Mercedes-AMG) all rotated the fastest time. Lariche then squeezed ahead of all of them with one final run, beating Ibañez to pole by just 0.083s.
Yani Stevenheydens claimed third for Elite Motorsport ahead of the sister McLaren driven by McKenzy Cresswell. Robertson left it late to set his best time in the Pro-Am session, claiming class pole in fifth overall ahead of Guilvert and Pro-Am rival Beltramelli.
It proved a tough session for the Silver points leaders, with Förderer and Fuchs ending up eighth and the chasing Borusan Otomotiv Motorsport BMW on Thomas Rackl and Gabriele Piana just 25th. Pro-Am dominators Victor Bouveng and Joakim Walde also struggled with their Schubert Motorsport M4 seventh in class. Christoffer Brunnhagen did just enough to edge out Kronberg by 0.3s and a single place overall in the Am fight.
Q2: Petit doubles Speedcar’s joy
While most of the Qualifying momentum has been with Lariche/Consani, Petit was the star of the second half, scorching to his and Guilvert’s first pole of the season, and the pair’s first since Zandvoort last year.
Consani looked to back up Lariche’s work by leading the opening laps, putting the #1 a full second clear at one point, but then came Petit, who hooked up a superb lap to fly 0.3s clear and from there he was never troubled.
Consani reacted by improving on his final lap but he could only narrow the gap to 0.1s by the flag. Charlie Hart grabbed P3 for Elite ahead of a solid effort from Alex Papadopulos in the #15 NM Mercedes-AMG. Harri Reynolds was fifth in the #77 Elite McLaren ahead of Bottemanne, who proved untouchable in Pro-Am, the #3 Audi finishing a full 13 places overall clear of Julien Briché’s JSB Competition Porsche, which recovered superbly from a loss of power in Q1 to snatch second in class in Q2. Paolo Meloni kept W&D Racing Team in the class title hunt in third ahead of Chris Salkeld’s Razoon – more than racing M4. Walde was seventh, leaving Schubert with work to do.
Blickle fought back against Mikael Brunnhagen in the two-horse Am race, finishing comfortably ahead.
The opening race at the GT4 European Series is set for 17:25 and will be streamed live on the GT World YouTube channel.