Pole position and outright pace went to two different cars in qualifying for round two of the Italian GT Championship (CIGT) Endurance at Monza. CSA Racing’s #1 McLaren 720S GT3 will start Sunday’s 3 Hours of Monza from pole, but it was SF Squadra Corse’s #184 Lamborghini Huracán ST, racing in GT Cup, that set the fastest time of the entire session. 

GT3

CSA Racing’s #1 McLaren 720S GT3 will start Sunday’s Italian GT Championship (CIGT) Endurance round at Monza from pole, with the team in form since their win at the Sprint round in Misano. Arthur Rougier, Baptiste Moulin and Sai Sanjay Thirugnana combined for 5m20.276sec across the three qualifying turns, just 0.045sec clear of the Spirit of Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 of Francesco Braschi, Andrew Rackstraw and Riccardo Ponzio. Rougier set the outright fastest lap of qualifying, a 1m46.122sec in Q3.

David Perel’s #50 Spirit of Racing Ferrari failed to set a time after crashing at Parabolica in Q1, and will start the race from the back of the 54-car grid.

AKM Motorsport’s #64 Mercedes-AMG GT3 and the #533 Birace Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 Cup session also came to a premature end, as the cars collided at the first chicane during Q2.

GT Cup

Luca Franca, Matteo Roccadelli and Giacomo Trebbi took GT Cup pole for SF Squadra Corse in the #184 Lamborghini Huracán ST, and their pace deserves a closer look. The trio’s 5m20.152sec wasn’t just the fastest GT Cup time of the weekend, it was the fastest time of the entire qualifying session, quicker than every GT3 car on track including the pole-winning McLaren. They start behind the GT3 field regardless, leading the GT Cup field to the green. The #150 Spirit of Racing Ferrari 296 Challenge of Edoardo Barbolini, Simone Patrinicola and Federico Al Rifai lines up second in class, 0.234sec back.

The 3 Hours of Monza starts Sunday at 15:00 CEST.