Jordan Pepper has given the VSR squad its maiden Fanatec GT Europe Sprint Cup pole by topping Saturday morning's Qualifying at Hockenheim.
The #40 Lamborghini backed out of its first run, but Pepper made his second effort count by punching in a 1m37.446s. Albert Costa appeared to have edged the South African driver, only for the #69 Emil Frey Racing Ferrari to lose his two best laps due to track limit violations.
Pepper was followed by no fewer than seven Audi runners. Ricardo Feller put the #40 Tresor Orange1 machine on the front row, followed by Fred Vervisch (#12 Comtoyou Racing) and Bronze Cup pole-sitter Dennis Marschall (#66 Tresor Attempto Racing).
Row three will be shared by the Gold Cup pole-sitter Gilles Magnus (#21 Comtoyou Racing) and the sister #11 car of Lucas Legeret. The Saintéloc Junior Team entries of Simon Gachet (#26) and Chris Mies (#27) will complete the top eight on this afternoon's grid.
Christian Klien gave JP Motorsport its best starting spot of the 2023 season by qualifying ninth in the #111 McLaren. The former F1 driver will start alongside reigning Sprint Cup champion Charles Weerts in the #32 Team WRT BMW. The Silver Cup pole-sitter will be Jordan Love, who qualified 12th overall in the #77 HRT Mercedes-AMG.
The most significant absentee from the front half of the grid was the championship-leading #88 Akkodis ASP Mercedes-AMG, which has significant work to do this afternoon after Timur Boguslavskiy qualified 28th overall. He suffered the same fate as Costa having posted a lap good enough for 14th, only to lose the time due to track limits.
The opening race of the Hockenheim weekend gets underway at 14:00 CEST and will air live on the GT World YouTube channel.
