Team WRT will start both of tomorrow's Fanatec GT Europe Sprint Cup races at Misano from pole position. The #46 BMW of Maxime Martin will lead the field away for the opening contest, while the the sister #32 of Charles Weerts holds the advantage for Saturday's second outing.
It was no surprise to see the Belgian squad at the top of the order after its three-car line-up was consistently fast in Free Practice and Pre-Qualifying. This is also a particularly strong track for the team, which has amassed 11 overall wins at Misano since 2016.
It initially seemed that Dries Vanthoor had secured Race 1 pole in the #32 BMW. There was a late challenge from the sister #46 car, driven by Martin, who went purple in sector 1 on his final lap, though he ultimately took P2 at the chequered flag with a 1m31.437s.
But a few moments later Vanthoor's lap was cancelled for exceeding track limits, bumping the #46 up to pole. Martin will be joined on the front row by Ben Green, who produced another fine showing aboard the #14 Emil Frey Racing Ferrari. Local ace Mattia Drudi qualified third in the #7 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin.
The second session was more straightforward as Weerts produced the laps his #32 BMW was capable of and avoided track limit penalties. His time of 1m31.558s was 0.028s better than Lucas Auer in the #48 Winward Racing Team Mann-Filter Mercedes-AMG. This was a much-needed comeback for the Mercedes-AMG contingent after a disastrous Q1, which saw Jules Gounon (#9 Boutsen VDS) and Maro Engel (#48 Winward Racing) qualify only 21st and 22nd.
Giacomo Altoè was third in Q2 for Emil Frey Racing, maintaining the Ferrari squad's strong start to the season with both cars, while Valentino Rossi qualified fifth overall in the #46 Team WRT BMW. Notably, all eight brands competing this weekend secured a top 10 position across the two sessions.
Among the class runners, Marvin Dienst (#54 Dinamic GT Porsche) stood out by qualifying fourth overall in Q1 and securing Bronze Cup pole in the process. This followed impressive Practice and Pre-Qualifying displays from the German driver. In Q2, the experienced Jonathan Hui delivered a quality performance to take Bronze pole in the #93 Sky Tempesta Racing Ferrari.
CSA Racing took a sweep of Gold Cup poles. Lucas Légeret was P13 overall in Q1, while Simon Gachet put the #111 Audi a superb P4 overall in Q2. In the Silver Cup, Calan Williams added to Team WRT's success by topping Q1 and taking fifth overall, while Ivan Klymeno bagged his maiden series pole at the wheel of the #26 Saintéloc Racing Audi in Q2.
All of tomorrow's action will be screened live on the GT World YouTube channel: Race 1 gets underway at 14:00, followed by Race 2 at 21:00. The latter is set to be the first Sprint Cup contest staged in darkness since 2021.
> Result: Qualifying 1 | Qualifying 2