Marciello keeps Akkodis ASP Mercedes-AMG on top in Zandvoort pre-qualifying

Marciello keeps Akkodis ASP Mercedes-AMG on top in Zandvoort pre-qualifying

Akkodis ASP maintained control at Zandvoort as Raffaele Marciello topped pre-qualifying at the wheel of the #89 Mercedes-AMG.

The Swiss ace matched teammate Timur Boguslavskiy, who led the way in this morning's free practice, with a lap time of 1m33.459s. Indeed, this was more than half a second better than the earlier benchmark as Marciello laid down a warning to his rivals. 

But Akkodis ASP's chief title challengers were not far behind. Dries Vanthoor was second quickest at the wheel of the #32 Team WRT Audi, a mere 0.035s shy of the pace. He was followed by another Audi as Dennis Marschall put the #66 Attempto Racing entry third with a 1m33.625s. 

Fourth overall went to the Silver Cup pace-setter, Thomas Neubauer, who posted a 1m33.965s at the wheel of the #30 Team WRT Audi. The sister #33 car was next courtesy of Chris Mies, while Dinamic Motorsport showed good pace with its Porsches occupying positions six and seven overall.

AF Corse led Pro-Am with its #52 Ferrari. Andrea Bertolini set the time, which was good enough for 16th overall in the car he shares with Louis Machiels. The squad's session ended less favourably, however, as a spin at turn 13 required a red flag that brought pre-qualifying to an early conclusion. 

This was one of three stoppages: the first saw Valentino Rossi find the turn 3 gravel for the second time today, though on this occasion the #46 Audi did not suffer serious damage. Indeed, Rossi was already at the wheel of Team WRT's spare car following his earlier incident.

The other red flag was caused by Dennis Lind, who also spun at T3 and found himself stranded on the Hugenholtzbocht banking. The #112 JP Motorsport McLaren was not seriously damaged and returned to the pits under its own power.

With practice complete, the next track activity will see cars tackle their first qualifying session of the weekend at 09:45 CEST on Saturday, while the opening race gets going at 14:00. Coverage will be available across a variety of online platforms, including the GT World YouTube channel, with commentary in English, French, Italian and German.