Dennis Marschall scored the ROWE Pole Position Award in this morning's Qualifying at Circuit Ricardo Tormo Valencia. The Kessel Racing Ferrari has been fast since the cars hit the track on Thursday morning and backed it up with a commanding P1.
The Pro and Gold Cup crews ran in the first of two 10-minute sessions, with the #51 AF Corse Francorchamps Motors Ferrari of Alessio Rovera emerging quickest thanks to a 1m31.268s. Thomas Fleming was second in the #58 Garage 59 McLaren, banking Gold Cup pole in the process.
But there were two more classes to run in the second session: the Bronze Cup and Silver Cup. They would benefit from a cleaner track, and with a host of pro drivers in the Bronze cars, overall pole was clearly up for grabs.
The favourite to take it was Marschall, who topped both Free Practice and Pre-Qualifying aboard the #74 Ferrari. The German more than delivered, producing the only sub-1m30 lap – a 1m30.883s, to be precise – to capture P1 overall and in class. He will share the front tow with his Bronze title rival Bastian Buus (#89 Lionspeed GP Porsche), who broke Ferrari's dominance at the front.
Eddie Cheever will start P3 in the #93 Ziggo Sport Tempesta Ferrari, meaning the top three will be entirely composed of Bronze cars. Rovera was fourth in the combined classification but is set to receive a five-place penalty; this means the #58 McLaren will start fourth, followed by the #48 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG of Lucas Auer. The latter is the best of the overall title contenders.
The others experienced mixed fortunes. The #63 Grasser Racing Lamborghini will start sixth, while the #51 Ferrari will be ninth after its penalty. But these are both outsiders: the points-leading #32 Team WRT BMW will start 25th overall, while the #59 Garage 59 McLaren qualified 15th and the #96 Rutronik Racing Porsche was 20th.
There were no such problems for the Silver Cup leader. The #21 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin of Kobe Pauwels qualified 14th overall to bank class pole and edge a little closer to clinching the title. A win this afternoon could be enough to secure the crown with a round to spare.
This afternoon's 60-minute contest marks the penultimate race of the Sprint Cup season. The lights will go green at 14:15, with live coverage on the GT World YouTube channel.
RESULTS: Qualifying 1