Pierre Kaffer and Phillipe Chatelet topped the times in an ultra-tight Pre-Qualifying session at Monza for the fifth round of the Fanatec GT2 European Series Powered by Pirelli, with Philippe Prette once again the quickest in the Am class.
Having finished fourth in Free Practice at the ‘Temple of Speed’, the LP Racing duo squeezed in a 1:45.883s effort to rise into first place aboard their #18 Audi R8 LMS GT2 shortly before the hour-long run out was halted by a red flag. A trip into the gravel for the #888 NM Racing Team Mercedes-AMG GT2 meant rivals were unable to respond to Kaffer and Chatelet’s new benchmark.
Kaffer’s best flying lap was a slender 0.170s faster than team-mates Leonardo Gorini and Carlo Tamburini, who had been the morning pacesetters with their #1 Maserati GT2.
Current championship leader Team MZR repeated a Free Practice result of third with Reinhard Kofler and Martin Koch behind the wheel of the #812 KTM X-BOW GT2. The pair lapped just 0.091s slower than their key Pro-Am title rivals Tamburini and Gorini.
A strong fourth place for Prette ensured the Italian was quickest of those in the Am category, albeit the #2 LP Racing driver was closely followed by class rival and fellow Maserati driver, Alexandre Leroy. The Belgian finished a mere 0.118s further back to land fifth place overall.
The #80 Razoon - More Than Racing KTM shared by Simon Birch and Thomas Andersen took sixth to pip the impressive NM Racing duo of Stéphane Perrin and Jörg Viebahn. Meanwhile, the #61 Akkodis ASP Mercedes of Mauro and Benjamin Ricci ranked eighth.
RTR Projects’ #89 KTM duo of Jan Krabec and newcomer Viktor Mraz completed a tightly-contested top nine, which was remarkably split by less than a second. The top 10 cars were rounded out by another Akkodis ASP Mercedes, piloted by Am class leaders Giles Vannelet and Jean-Luc Beaubelique.
The all-important matter of Qualifying is next on the agenda for the Fanatec GT2 field, with two 20-minute sessions to decide the grids starting this afternoon at 16:30.