Nil Montserrat and Alberto De Martin upped the pace in Pre-Qualifying as Friday’s GT2 European Series powered by Pirelli action concluded with NM Racing Team topping the times.
The Spanish Pro-Am squad lowered the morning’s best effort by almost a second in scorching summer temperatures at the Italian circuit, culminating in a lap of 1:34.515s by Montserrat to put the #115 Mercedes-AMG fastest of the day.
It was not without pressure however, as Free Practice pace-setters DL Racing trailed them by a mere 0.130s after a highly competitive hour of on-track running. Diego Locanto and Luca Segù backed up their strong showing in the morning, putting the #72 Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo second quickest ahead of their GT2 Europe debut.
Third went to the DINAMIC Motorsport Maserati of Roberto Pampanini and Mauro Calamia, with the ART-Line Lamborghini of Shota Abkhazava and Egor Orudzhev following up in fourth position. The top five was rounded out by the first of the RTR Projects KTMs, piloted by Mato Homola and Davit Kajaia.
Pro-Am points leaders Mičánek Motorsport powered by Buggyra could not muster higher than sixth place - the same position the #11 Lamborghini finished in the morning - as Bronek Formanek and Stefan Rosina aim to defend their Pro-Am lead this weekend.
Seventh overall but fastest in the Am category was also a Mercedes-AMG, that of the Akkodis ASP duo of Christophe Bourret and Pascal Gibon. Their nearest class rivals would be Luca Pirri and Stéphane Ratel (Audi R8 LMS GT2) for LP Racing, ahead of their team-mate Philippe Prette who only completed four laps in the Italian squad’s #1 Maserati. RTR Projects completed the top 10 with Petr Lisa and Viktor Mraz in the #789 KTM.
Attention now shifts to Saturday, starting with Qualifying from 10:20 CEST and then the opening 60-minute race at 16:30 CEST. Both sessions will be broadcast live via GT World on YouTube.