Mercedes works driver Jules Gounon secured pole position for Sunday’s race in the German GT Championship at the Sachsenring.
In the race for the title in the German GT Championship, it was Mercedes-AMG who made the running in qualifying for race two at the Sachsenring. Of the group of favourites at the top of the table, Maximilian Buhk (Landgraf) and Maro Engel (Toksport WRT) secured the best grid positions for race two, in third and fifth place respectively. Meanwhile, Mercedes-AMG works driver Jules Gounon (Zakspeed) took pole position. Gounon’s compatriot Franck Perera (GRT Grasser) qualified second in a Lamborghini, making it an all-French front row.
Sunday’s battle for the Pirelli Pole Position Award went right down to the final seconds. After title contenders Michael Ammermüller (SSR-Porsche), Maro Engel (Toksport WRT-Mercedes-AMG) and Maximilian Buhk (Landgraf-Mercedes-AMG) had all topped the timing sheet at various points, it was Gounon who grabbed first place in the final minutes with a time of 1:18.871 minutes. However, there was more to come: after a red flag following a spin by Norbert Siedler in the Yaco Audi, qualifying was released again for a further 3.58 minutes. Virtually the whole field took to the challenging track again for a final shoot-out, with pole position the prize. Lamborghini driver Franck Perera (GRT Grasser Racing Team) came closest to Gounon’s fastest time, but missed out on the front spot on the grid by just 0.059 seconds.
Gounon’s qualifying success earned him his second Pirelli Pole Position Award in a row, having also picked up three extra points at the Lausitzring. His partner at the Zakspeed Mobil Krankenkasse Racing team, Igor Waliłko, had landed the car on the front row of the grid on Saturday.
“I am very happy to have secured pole position again,” said Gounon. “Igor produced an impressive qualifying yesterday, but unfortunately the race was not ideal. The car has been fantastic all weekend and the Zakspeed team has done a fantastic job. I won my first ADAC GT Masters race here in 2016, it would be great to repeat that today. Pole position is very important here, as it is not easy to overtake. The goal is to open up a small lead for Igor, so that he can bring the car home in a good position, as he did at the Lausitzring.”
Franck Perera and team-mate Rolf Ineichen had to settle for second place with a time of 1:18.930 minutes, just 0.012 ahead of Maximilian Buhk and his fellow Mercedes-AMG works driver Raffaele Marciello in third. Fourth place went to Lamborghini works driver Marco Mapelli, who secured a promising grid position in Sunday’s race for the local favourites from T3 Motorsport. Mapelli shares the Huracán GT3 Evo with Maximilian Paul from Dresden. Rounding off the top five was Maro Engel, who shares the driving duties in his Mercedes-AMG with Luca Stolz.
Starting next to them in sixth place on the grid will be championship leaders Christopher Mies/Ricardo Feller (Montaplast by Land-Motorsport) in the fastest Audi R8 LMS.