+ Result: Qualifying 1, Monza
+ Result: Qualifying 2, Monza
Branden Oxley and Jay Mo Härtling secured both a pole position each and a Qualifying clean sweep for Mercedes-AMG at Monza.
Oxley left it late to go fastest in his NM Racing Team-run car to snatch pole for race one, before Härtling timed his own run perfectly, allowing others to do the mileage before taking advantage of the peak of the Pirelli tyre to grab race two top spot for SR Motorsport by Schnitzelalm. RTR Projects drivers Ondrej Rokos and Petr Lisa doubled up in the Masters class, adding another accolade for the three-pointed star.
Q1: Oxley makes his mark
Oxley came alive toward the end of the opening session, producing a dominant performance to claim the first pole of the season by a comfortable margin.
Antoine Potty did much of the early running in the new i4Race Maserati, putting in the first benchmark before the session was briefly halted to clear the #89 KTM from the gravel. When running resumed Roberto Pampanini was first out in the Dinamic Maserati, going fastest before being toppled by first Stefan Rosina’s LP Racing Maserati and then a further improvement from Potty.
Through it all Oxley was biding his time, and struck with four minutes to go, his 1:45.879s effort putting him 0.9s clear of Potty, who boxed toward the end of the session happy with second. Mikkel Njor was third fastest in the #3 CMR Ginetta ahead of Rosina.
An impressive run from Rokos helped the RTR Mercedes-AMG to fifth overall and top in the Masters class, ahead of the Thomas Yu Lee-driven #8 LP Maserati which proved fastest in Pro-Am. David Thilenius put his #111 SR Motorsport by Schnitzelalm car seventh and second in Pro-Am, ahead of two-time Masters champion Philippe Prette in his #1 Maserati.
Q2: Härtling times it right
Having topped both practice sessions on Friday, Härtling would always be one to watch in this session, but as the field rolled out when the track went green, the #111 remained in its pit box.
Härtling sat and watched as the sister car in the hands of Moritz Wiskirchen emerged ahead of a tight early battle with Gerhard Tweraser (#18 LP Maserati) and Potty. Härtling finally ventured out a few laps later, warmed his tyres perfectly and rocketed to a 1:44.970s to set the fastest lap of the weekend so far. Wiskirchen held second as Nil Montserratt took third in his NM Racing Team car. Adrian Ferrer backed up Oxley’s efforts to grab a second Silver class pole in fourth, ahead of Masters pole-sitter Lisa in the RTR Mercedes-AMG.
Potty ended the session sixth overall and second in Silver ahead of Ethan Gialdini’s CMR Ginetta. A notable absentee was the MZR KTM of 2024 Monza winner Reinhard Kofler, which failed to complete a lap due to a sensor issue.
Race 1 is scheduled for 13:25.