GTWCE Nürburgring qualifying report: Akkodis ASP wins pole in drying track shoot-out

In a wet and wild qualifying session for the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europa powered by AWS at the Nürburgring, the #88 Akkodis ASP Team Mercedes-AMG GT3 secured pole in a two-way battle with the #63 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracán. Jules Gounon and Jordan Pepper fought it out in the drying third session with the Frenchman only just beating the Lamborghini squad for the team’s second Endurance pole of 2023.

After two sessions of heavy rain, the skies cleared for the third and final session of qualifying. As the track dried, lap times dropped significantly with Gounon and Pepper being the two drivers looking to grab pole as they took turns at the top of the charts.

Gounon was one of the first to take the chequered flag, giving Pepper had one final shot. However, despite a spectacular effort and setting a lap faster than Gounon in his session, with traffic on his final lap the South African was unable to lift his team’s three-lap average any higher than a 2m09.363. The Mercedes-AMG’s three-lap average of 2m09.233sec was enough for the French team to win pole for Sunday’s three-hour race.

Lining up third place on the grid will be the #777 Mercedes-AMG Team AlManar Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Maro Engel, Luca Stolz and Fabian Schiller – the fastest team in pre-qualifying – alongside the #87 Akkodis ASP Team Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Lorenzo Ferrari, Thomas Drouet and Maximilian Götz.

Starting from fifth and sixth will be the #30 Tresor Orange1 Audi R8 LMS GT3 of Dennis Marschall, Mattia Drudi and Ricardo Feller and #6 K-Pax Lamborghini Huracán GT3 of Franck Perera, Marco Mapelli and Sandy Mitchell.

The top ten is completed by the #157 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 – pole sitter in the Gold Cup class – #25 Saintéloc Junior Team Audi R8 LMS GT3, #11 Comtoyou Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 and the championship leading #98 Rowe Racing BMW M4 GT3.

Bronze Cup pole went to the #83 Iron Dames Lamborghini Huracán GT3 in fourteenth overall, with the Pro-Am Cup pole going to the #78 Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini Huracán GT3 in 27th on the grid and Silver Cup to yet another Lamborghini team – #85 GRT Grasser Racing Team.