Philippe Prette grabbed a maiden outright Fanatec GT2 European Series Powered by Pirelli pole position at Misano, sharing spoils with LP Racing team-mates Leonardo Gorini and Carlo Tamburini in a mightily close qualifying.
The Italian team took a sweep of the pole positions in both 20-minute sessions at the first of their two home events, Prette clinching an outright pole in addition to a double top spot in the Am class over both sessions.
A frenetic first phase of qualifying was unpredictable as track limits infringements jumbled up the order within the first 10 minutes. When it settled down, Prette’s #2 Maserati GT2 set the pace with a lap of 1:35.561s to secure a first outright pole position for the Italian.
Prette was one of three Am class entries finishing inside the top four in Q1, just 0.085s ahead of the rapid Gilles Vannelet in the #87 and the Akkodis ASP Mercedes-AMG GT2.
The #1 LP Racing Maserati finished third overall and best of the Pro-Am teams, despite Leonardo Gorini losing several laps to track limits along the way. The similar #24 entry of TFT Racing was fourth in the hands of flying Am driver Alexandre Leroy, while Team MZR rounded out the top five with Martin Koch in the KTM X-BOW.
Mauro Ricci was next up for Akkodis ASP ahead of Dominik Olbert’s Razoon - More Than Racing KTM, Pascal Gibon’s #53 Akkodis ASP Mercedes and the championship-leading RTR Projects X-BOW of Jan Krabec. Thomas Andersen completed the top 10 in the #80 KTM.
The double pole for LP Racing was secured late in Q2 by Italian teenager Tamburini, but only by a mere 0.002s as Reinhard Kofler ran him incredibly close for Team MZR.
The top three were actually covered by just 0.053s in hugely tight session. Third place went to the impressive Loris Hezemans in the Motorsport 98 Mercedes-AMG, which he shares with Eric de Doncker.
Pro-Am crews filled the top five spots. The returning Pierre Kaffer put he and Michael Doppelmayr fourth on the grid in the LP Racing Audi R8 LMS GT2, fifth going to another ex-GT2 race winner in Ludovic Badey who shares the #61 Mercedes with Ricci.
Sixth place overall went to Prette who again topped the Am class, ahead of nearest rivals Stéphane Perrin and Jörg Viebahn for NM Racing, and Leroy’s Maserati close behind.
The first 50-minute Fanatec GT2 race of the weekend kicks off at 19:25 and runs into the night. Watch the action unfold live on GT World YouTube.