AF Corse’s Mario Cordoni grabbed pole position for the opening Blancpain GT Sports Club race at Monza, Italy, with his 1:50.474 just 0.003 seconds ahead of Christian Hook (#33 Rinaldi Racing). Patrick Van Glabeke’s (#488 AF Corse) third place meant that, like in free practice, it was an all-Ferrari 488 GT3 top-three.
In the Iron Cup, last year’s rivals Klaus Dieter Frers (#3 Artega Rennsport Ferrari 488 GT3) and Stephen Earle (#111 Kessel Racing Ferrari 488 GT3) once again traded fastest lap times, with the German ultimately emerging on top, as Louis Philippe Soenen (#50 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GT3) went third fastest.
The Titanium Cup continued to prove strong, with pole-winner Mario Cordoni, Christian Hook and Karim Ojjeh (#2 Boutsen Ginion BMW M6 GT3), who is the highest-placed non-Ferrari, all entered in the new-for-2018 class, and will also occupy three of the top four places for this afternoon’s 25-minute Qualifying Race.
Boutsen Ginion will have two cars inside the top five, with Claude-Yves Gosselin guiding his #4 Lamborghini Gallardo Extenso R-EX to fifth place, ahead of Coach McKansy (#17 HP Racing International Lamborghini Huracan GT3) and last year’s championship runner-up Christoph Ulrich (#51 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GT3), who will miss the first race after sustaining rear damage in an incident with Dilantha Malagamuwa (#24 GDL Racing Porsche 991 Cup).
Herbert Motorsport got both their cars inside the top-10, with Häring Jürgen (#66 Porsche 991 GT3 R) and Edward Lewis Brauner (#991 Porsche 991 GT3 R) set to line-up eighth and tenth on the grid, with Claudio Schiavoni (#20 Ferrari 488 GT3) sandwiched between the German pair in ninth.
Next for the drivers will be the 25-minute Qualifying Race, which gets under way at 16:25 (GMT+2). We will be live streaming the races on our official website, YouTube and Facebook page.
Click here for full qualifying results.
