The second round of the 2024 Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Fanatec GT Sprint Cup got underway today on the Brands Hatch GP loop in England.  A grid of 25 cars, broken down into 3 classes consisting of 11 in the Pro class, 5 in the Gold class, and 9 in the Silver class. Two one-hour sprint races will take place on Sunday, with grid positions set by two 10-minute qualifying sessions on Saturday.

In the first qualifying session it was Ben Green who took pole position. Driving the #14 Emil Frey Racing Ferrari, Green took the top spot on his 5th of 7 laps around the GP Loop with a time of 1:27.768. With a purple sector in sector 2 it was just enough to secure the position ahead of second placed man, Matti Drudi in the #7 Cometoyou  Racing Aston Martin who was just 0.016 seconds behind Green having only completed 4 laps.

P3 was claimed by Dries Vanthoor in the Team WRT BMW with a lap of 1:22.866 completed on the sixth of his seven laps.

The second qualifying session was disrupted by a late red flag leaving a little over 3 minutes of the session remaining after Matisse Lismont in the #21 Aston Martin slid into the barrier at Stirlings.

At the break, Jules Gounon held the fastest time in the #9 Boutsen VDS Mercedes AMG. with second place being held by Ricardo Feller in the #99 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi.

Thierry Vermeulen in the #69 Emil Frey Ferrari was first out of the pitlane at the restart looking to improve on the 15th place he held at the stoppage. Capitalising on a clear track, the Dutchman  was able to post three best sectors to grab the top spot but Gounon wasn’t far behind and took the place back with a lap of 1:22.536.

With just seconds remaining in the session, it was Lucas Auer in the #48 Winward Racing Mann Filter Mercedes AMG who leapt up the field coming from P15 to take pole position. A purple first sector saw the yellow Mercedes claim pole with a lap of 1:22.393 just 0.143 seconds ahead of  Gounon in second place.

 

Konsta Lappalainen in the #14 Emil Frey Ferrari briefly took second place but lost it almost immediately as the lap was cancelled for track limits infringement.

 

Ricardo Feller hung on to P3 with his personal best times in each sector putting him just 0.026 seconds behind Gounon.

Race one will take place on Sunday morning at 11:00 BST (12:00 in Europe) whilst race two follows at 16:00 BST.

 
 

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