Lionspeed GP swept the first Sprint Cup qualifying session of the season at Brands Hatch as Ricardo Feller and Bastian Buus delivered a sensational performance in their Porsche.
The German squad hit the ground running by taking both ROWE Pole Position Awards and is the clear favourite for victory on Sunday. Ferrari, BMW and Mercedes-AMG all have cars on the first two rows of the grid and will hope to challenge the dominant 911.
Feller tackled Q1 and set a blistering time of 1m22.722s, which was so far clear of the rest as to effectively guarantee pole. At this moment he was half a second clear, though Arthur Leclerc (#50 AF Corse Ferrari) was able to get to within 0.249s on the way to second spot. This was the Monegasque's best GT World Challenge qualifying result since joining the series last year.
Matisse Lismont also secured a career-best by taking third overall and bagged Silver Cup pole in the #30 Team WRT BMW. The Belgian was 0.210s away from Leclerc and 0.042s ahead of Dani Juncadella (#3 Mercedes-AMG Team Verstappen Racing) with whom he will share the second row.
The third row will feature the #14 Emil Frey Racing Ferrari and the #2 Boutsen VDS Porsche, while seventh overall and pole in the Gold Cup went to the #99 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi of Dylan Pereira.
There were several major surprises in this session. The #32 Team WRT BMW was 12th, the #48 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG was 15th, while the #7 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin of Nicki Thiim will start 31st on the grid for Race 1.
Given his teammate's performance, Buus inevitably became the favourite to take pole in the second session. The Danish racer lived up to this status, posting a 1m22.470s – the best lap of the weekend – to confirm a clean sweep for Lionspeed. This is the first time that a car has taken both poles at a Sprint weekend since Misano in 2022.
Chris Lulham qualified second for his home event with a stellar effort aboard the #3 Mercedes-AMG Team Verstappen Racing machine. The Brit was 0.102s shy of pole and quickest of anyone in the first sector.
Brands Hatch debutant Max Hesse qualified third in the #46 BMW, conforming he and Rossi as a serious threat for at least a podium finish on Sunday, while Maro Engel qualified fourth in the #48 Winward Mercedes-AMG.
Gilles Magnus was fifth overall and took Gold Cup pole in the #10 Boutsen VDS Porsche. In Silver, Ignacio Montenegro completed a Team WRT sweep by qualifying the #30 BMW ninth overall, five places clear of his closest class rival.
The opening 60-minute races of the 2026 Sprint Cup season are scheduled to get underway at 11:15 and 15:45 BST. Live coverage will air on the GT World YouTube channel.