GTWCE: Stolz P1 in Pre-Qualifying

Luca Stolz was quickest in the second practice session and pre-qualifying for Round Seven of the 2021 Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Powered by AWS. Stolz lapped the Brands Hatch GP circuit in 1:24.918 in the #6 Mercedes-AMG Team Toksport Mercedes GT3 during a largely uneventful session ahead of qualifying later this afternoon.

Second quickest, and completing another 1 – 2 for Mercedes, was the #90 Silver Cup entry driven by Ezequiel Perez Companc and, setting the time with a 1:24.939, Rik Breukers.

The overall top three was completed by the #14 Emil Frey Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 piloted by Ricardo Feller and Alex Fontana.     

Heading the timesheets in the Pro-Am category was the #20 SPS automotive performance Mercedes driven by Valentin Pierburg and Dominik Baumann that set a 1:25.779.

As the 60-minute session got underway, the #159 Garage 59 Aston Martin was served with a stop-and-go penalty for causing the collision with the #38 JOTA McLaren at the end of the first practice session.

Mercedes and AKKA ASP set the early pace with a 1-2-3 for the Stuttgart marque after 10 minutes, the #88 entry with Raffaele Marciello behind the wheel heading the timesheets with a 1:24.954 followed by Jim Pla in the sister #87 entry and Jules Gounon, driving the #89 car.

Rik Breukers then put in a 1:24.939 in the #90 Silver Cup Madpanda Mercedes to go quickest.

Rain started to fall with just over 37 minutes remaining but that did not stop Luca Stolz setting the eventual quickest time with a 1:24.918, just .021 seconds ahead of the #90 Madpanda Motorsport entry.

Surprisingly, without heavy rain falling, the track was declared wet with just over 25 minutes remaining.

With seven minutes to go, Giorgio Roda, in the #93 SKY – Tempesta Racing Ferrari 488 GT3 ,went off at Sterlings to bring out the red flag and stop the session. Due to the tight scheduling of the remainder of the day due to the lengthy stoppage in the first practice session, the decision was made not to restart.

The #159 Garage 59 Aston Martin did not make it out to the session following its penalty.

Maro Engel was happy to be finish the session quickest but warned against predicting pole position for the #6 Mercedes.

“It’s great to be racing in the UK and at this track as well,” said Engel. “It’s been a while but it’s such a pleasure to drive the GP circuit here at Brands. For sure our car handled the track well. A bit of fine-tuning is all we need to do.

“The practice sessions are quite short today and this is a compressed weekend but we’re just trying to get the best out of it. But good lap by Luca there to put us P1 in this session.

“There were a few drops of rain throughout the session and even when Luca was out but so far – so good. So bit of fine-tuning to do and let’s see where we are in qualifying.

“Not everyone ran new tyres (in that session) so let’s see (where we are in qualifying).”

Qualifying is due to get underway at Brands Hatch at 3.15pm on Saturday August 28.