Marciello fastest for Akkodis ASP as sunshine makes welcome return at Hockenheim

Marciello fastest for Akkodis ASP as sunshine makes welcome return at Hockenheim

Akkodis ASP moved to the top of the timing screens in this afternoon's Pre-Qualifying session at Hockenheim thanks to its championship-leading #88 Mercedes-AMG.

Following this morning's rain-soaked free practice, the second full-field run of the weekend was staged in dry conditions and with blue sky above. This ensured a busy track from the very start, not to mention considerably faster lap times. 

The best of them belonged to Raffaele Marciello, who posted a 1m37.643s to knock early pace-setter Dennis Marschall (#66 Attempto Racing Audi) off top spot. The gap could not have been smaller, with just 0.001s separating the top two, while Charles Weerts was third in the #32 Team WRT Audi.

Fourth overall went to the #7 Inception Racing McLaren, which led the way in the Gold Cup class thanks to a 1m37.905s from Frederik Schandorff. The Dane led a trio of McLaren runners, followed by the #111 JP Motorsport entry and the #159 entered by Garage 59. The latter also topped the Silver Cup order thanks to Nicolai Kjaergaard. 

SPS Automotive Performance paced the Pro-Am runners thanks to a 1m38.326s from Dominik Baumann. All 49 cars competing this weekend were on-track, with the #83 Iron Dames Ferrari finishing at the foot of the order.

There were numerous spins during the 90-minute session as drivers found the limit in dry conditions. A red flag occurred a little before the halfway point when Dean MacDonald spun the #159 McLaren into the gravel. A procedural red flag with three minutes left on the clock brought Pre-Qualifying to an early conclusion. 

The next on-track activity will be tomorrow morning's crucial qualifying session which gets underway at 09:45 CEST, while the race goes green at 15:00. All of the the action will air in English, German, French and Italian on the GTWorld YouTube channel.