Bentley Team M-Sport claimed a maiden pole position for the 1000-kilometre Blancpain GT Endurance Cup race at the Paul Ricard Circuit.
Jordan Pepper, Steven Kane, and Jules Gounon took the top spot in the three-part qualifying session with a 1m53.338s average aboard their Bentley Continental GT3 and claimed Team M-Sport’s first pole position.
Their average time put them just 53 thousands of a second ahead of the reigning champions of Maro Engel, Luca Stolz and Yelmer Buurman in the Black Falcon Mercedes AMG GT3.
Gounon set the fastest lap of the weekend in the third and final qualifying session with a 1m52.671 as the trio aims to secure Bentley’s third win at the Paul Ricard Circuit.
“It was one of those days where everything came together,” said Gounon.
“I had a good slipstream in sector two, and we had had a lot of bad luck since this race last season. So it feels amazing to be on pole, Jordan [Pepper] did a great job in Q1, and Steven [Kane] did a great job in Q2 as well in traffic.”
The Attempto Racing squad of Steijn Schothorst, Pieter Schothorst, and Mattia Drudi in the 55 Audi R8 LMS took third position and the fastest time in sliver class with an average time of a 1m54.741.
The Orange 1 FFF Racing Team in the Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo matched the average time of the Attempo Racing team and will start fourth for the six-hour race.
Rowe Racing’s Porsche 911 GT3 and R-Motorsport’s Aston Martin Vantage GT3 qualified in fifth and sixth.
The 54 Dinamic Motorsport team entry had provisional pole after the first two qualifying sessions but ended qualifying in seventh place.
Ultimately, the team will start from 12th place after taking a five-place grid penalty for speeding in the pit-lane.
The Garage 59 Aston Martin Vantage of Come Ledogar, Andrew Watson, and Jonny Adam will start in eighth ahead of GRT Grasser Racing team who took pole in the last round at Silverstone.
The AKKA ASP Team in a Mercedes AMG will start in tenth place.
Raffaele Marciello’s 88 Mercedes AMG will start from the pit-lane after qualifying in 13th as his team had to change its engine after pre-qualifying.
Qualifying results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jules Gounon | Bentley Team M-Sport | Bentley | 1m52.671s | – |
| 2 | Maxime Martin | R-Motorsport | Aston Martin | 1m52.705s | 0.034s |
| 3 | Mirko Bortolotti | GRT Grasser Racing Team | Lamborghini | 1m52.831s | 0.160s |
| 4 | Mathieu Jaminet | Rowe Racing | Porsche | 1m52.934s | 0.263s |
| 5 | Mattia Drudi | Attempto Racing | Audi | 1m53.007s | 0.336s |
| 6 | Charlie Eastwood | Oman Racing Team with TF Sport | Aston Martin | 1m53.139s | 0.468s |
| 7 | Dennis Olsen | Rowe Racing | Porsche | 1m53.144s | 0.473s |
| 8 | Felipe Fraga | Akka ASP Team | Mercedes | 1m53.146s | 0.475s |
| 9 | Rik Breukers | Belgian Audi Club Team WRT | Audi | 1m53.162s | 0.491s |
| 10 | Yelmer Buurman | Black Falcon | Mercedes | 1m53.176s | 0.505s |
| 11 | Davide Rigon | SMP Racing | Ferrari | 1m53.210s | 0.539s |
| 12 | Sandy Mitchell | Barwell Motorsport | Lamborghini | 1m53.220s | 0.549s |
| 13 | Marco Mapelli | Orange 1 FFF Racing Team | Lamborghini | 1m53.237s | 0.566s |
| 14 | Tom Onslow-Cole | RAM Racing | Mercedes | 1m53.262s | 0.591s |
| 15 | Marvin Kirchhofer | R-Motorsport | Aston Martin | 1m53.333s | 0.662s |
| 16 | Franck Perera | Orange 1 FFF Racing Team | Lamborghini | 1m53.409s | 0.738s |
| 17 | Gabriele Piana | Black Falcon | Mercedes | 1m53.476s | 0.805s |
| 18 | Seb Morris | Team Parker Racing | Bentley | 1m53.491s | 0.820s |
| 19 | Andrea Bertolini | Spirit of Race | Ferrari | 1m53.505s | 0.834s |
| 20 | Kelvin van der Linde | Attempto Racing | Audi | 1m53.506s | 0.835s |
| 21 | Andrea Rizzoli | Dinamic Motorsport | Porsche | 1m53.511s | 0.840s |
| 22 | Come Ledogar | Garage 59 | Aston Martin | 1m53.518s | 0.847s |
| 23 | Christopher Haase | Sainteloc Junior Team | Audi | 1m53.558s | 0.887s |
| 24 | Markus Winkelhock | Sainteloc Junior Team | Audi | 1m53.561s | 0.890s |
| 25 | Maxime Soulet | Bentley Team M-Sport | Bentley | 1m53.587s | 0.916s |
| 26 | Vincent Abril | Mercedes-AMG Team Akka ASP | Mercedes | 1m53.714s | 1.043s |
| 27 | Alex Riberas | Belgian Audi Club Team WRT | Audi | 1m53.780s | 1.109s |
| 28 | Arno Santamato | GRT Grasser Racing Team | Lamborghini | 1m53.839s | 1.168s |
| 29 | Rinat Salikhov | Rinaldi Racing | Ferrari | 1m53.945s | 1.274s |
| 30 | Shae Davies | Belgian Audi Club Team WRT | Audi | 1m54.045s | 1.374s |
| 31 | Dean Stoneman | Ombra Racing | Lamborghini | 1m54.218s | 1.547s |
| 32 | Stuart Hall | GPX Racing | Porsche | 1m54.259s | 1.588s |
| 33 | Chris Froggatt | Spirit of Race | Ferrari | 1m54.437s | 1.766s |
| 34 | Chris Goodwin | Garage 59 | Aston Martin | 1m54.472s | 1.801s |
| 35 | Kris Richard | Daiko Lazarus Racing | Lamborghini | 1m54.488s | 1.817s |
| 36 | Miguel Ramos | Barwell Motorsport | Lamborghini | 1m54.500s | 1.829s |
| 37 | Michele Beretta | Orange 1 FFF Racing Team | Lamborghini | 1m54.595s | 1.924s |
| 38 | Matt McMurry | Jenson Team Rocket RJN | Honda | 1m54.608s | 1.937s |
| 39 | Finlay Hutchison | Phoenix Racing | Audi | 1m54.611s | 1.940s |
| 40 | Mauro Calamia | Scuderia Villorba Corse | Mercedes | 1m54.634s | 1.963s |
| 41 | Jose Manuel Balbiani | Rinaldi Racing | Ferrari | 1m54.795s | 2.124s |
| 42 | Renaud Kuppens | Boutsen Ginion Racing | Lamborghini | 1m54.861s | 2.190s |
| 43 | Wolfgang Triller | Team HB Racing | Ferrari | 1m55.080s | 2.409s |
| 44 | Fabien Barthez | Tech 1 Racing | Lexus | 1m55.394s | 2.723s |
| 45 | Christoph Lenz | Target Racing Srl | Lamborghini | 1m55.492s | 2.821s |
| 46 | Jean-Luc Beaubelique | Akka ASP Team | Mercedes | 1m55.576s | 2.905s |
| 47 | Steve Parrow | Rinaldi Racing | Ferrari | 1m56.446s | 3.775s |