Comtoyou Racing claimed a crucial pole position for the GT World Challenge (GTWC) Europe Endurance Cup race at the Nürburgring, with Mattia Drudi, Marco Sørensen and Nicki Thiim putting the #7 Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 EVO at the head of the 55-car field during Qualifying. The trio produced an average qualifying time of 1:53.591 across the three sessions, beating the #17 Mercedes-AMG Team GetSpeed entry by 0.127 seconds.
Pole also earned Comtoyou Racing an important championship bonus point as it attempts to keep its Endurance Cup title hopes alive. Despite none of its three drivers topping an individual qualifying segment, the #7 crew’s consistency proved decisive. Mercedes-AMG Team GetSpeed secured second with Maxime Martin, Maximilian Götz and Fabian Schiller, while the #80 Lionspeed GP Porsche completed the top three.
Consistency delivers pole for Comtoyou Racing
Endurance Cup qualifying uses the average lap time recorded by each car’s three drivers, meaning consistency across all three sessions can prove more important than outright pace in one segment. That played directly into Comtoyou Racing’s hands. Drudi opened the team’s qualifying effort with a 1:53.661 before Sørensen recorded a 1:53.806. Thiim then completed the job with a 1:53.308 in Q3, giving the Aston Martin an average of 1:53.591.
While each driver had rivals ahead of them during their respective segments, the #7 crew avoided a significant weak point across the three sessions. The result delivered Aston Martin its first GTWC Europe Endurance Cup pole since the 2018 CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa. GetSpeed followed a similar route to second place. Martin, Götz and Schiller combined for an average of 1:53.718 in the #17 Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO, securing a front-row starting position for the German squad.
Lionspeed loses provisional advantage in Q3
The #80 Lionspeed GP Porsche had been in contention for pole throughout qualifying and led the combined classification heading into the final segment. Ricardo Feller began with a 1:53.786 before Thomas Preining posted a 1:53.634. However, Bastian Buus’ 1:53.949 in Q3 left the trio with a 1:53.789 average, dropping the Porsche to third.
Garage 59 secured fourth with the #59 McLaren 720S GT3 EVO of Joseph Loake, Dean Macdonald and Marvin Kirchhöfer. Their 1:53.867 average put them just 0.078 seconds behind the Lionspeed Porsche. The #32 Team WRT BMW qualified fifth through Kelvin van der Linde, Jordan Pepper and Charles Weerts, although a penalty carried over from Free Practice means the car will start the race from eighth.
That penalty promotes the #3 Mercedes-AMG Team Verstappen Racing entry of Daniel Juncadella, Chris Lulham and Jules Gounon, which recorded a 1:53.891 average.
Garage 59 takes Gold Cup pole
Garage 59 added a Gold Cup pole position to its strong overall qualifying performance with the #58 McLaren. Thomas Fleming, Louis Prette and Benjamin Goethe combined for a 1:53.912 average, placing seventh in the outright classification before the #32 BMW’s grid penalty is applied. The #58 comfortably led the Gold Cup runners, finishing ahead of the #99 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi of Dylan Pereira, Andrea Frassineti and Alex Aka, which qualified 10th overall with a 1:54.151 average.
Between them, championship leaders Lucas Auer, Luca Stolz and Maro Engel qualified the #48 Mercedes-AMG Team MANN-FILTER entry eighth overall. The result left the championship situation finely poised. With Comtoyou Racing taking the bonus point for pole, the #7 Aston Martin crew kept the pressure on the #48 Mercedes-AMG crew heading into the three-hour race. The #51 AF Corse Ferrari of Alessio Rovera, Tommaso Mosca and Nicklas Nielsen completed the group immediately ahead of the #99 Audi with the ninth-fastest average.
Team WRT leads Silver Cup
Team WRT secured Silver Cup pole with the #30 BMW M4 GT3 EVO. Ignacio Montenegro, Matisse Lismont and Amaury Cordeel produced an average of 1:54.439, putting the car 17th overall and at the head of its class. The result also strengthened the trio’s position in the Silver Cup championship battle, with a class victory in the Nürburgring race enough to guarantee the title.
The #23 Team RJN McLaren qualified second in Silver and 19th overall, but Ben Dörr provided one of the standout individual performances of the morning. After Maxwell Lynn and Horatio Fitz-Simon recorded the car’s opening two times, Dörr delivered a 1:53.070 in Q3. The lap was the fastest of the entire qualifying session and established a new qualifying lap record at the Nürburgring.
His performance was more than two tenths faster than the next-best individual lap, although the Endurance Cup’s combined qualifying format meant the #23 ultimately remained behind the #30 BMW in the Silver Cup classification.
2 Seas Motorsport heads the Bronze Cup
The #222 2 Seas Motorsport Mercedes-AMG secured Bronze Cup pole through Kiern Jewiss, Charles Dawson and Reece Barr. Their 1:54.493 average placed them 18th overall, splitting the leading Silver Cup entries and leaving the Mercedes-AMG only 0.472 seconds behind the championship-leading #48 MANN-FILTER car in the outright classification.
Paradine Competition’s #991 BMW was the second-fastest Bronze Cup entry in 20th overall, followed by the #87 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG in 26th.
Tight margins across 55-car field
Qualifying at the GTWC Europe Endurance Cup weekend at the Nürburgring underlined the competitiveness of the field, with all 55 cars completing each of the three segments without a stoppage. Less than one second separated the fastest 24 cars in the combined classification, while the top six were covered by just three tenths of a second.
Comtoyou Racing nevertheless emerged on top when it mattered most. Drudi, Sørensen and Thiim may not have produced the outright fastest lap in any individual segment, but their consistency across all three sessions delivered pole position and another valuable championship point.
They will lead the field away for the three-hour GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup race at the Nürburgring, with the #17 GetSpeed Mercedes-AMG alongside them on the front row and the #80 Lionspeed GP Porsche leading the pursuit from behind.
GTWC Europe Endurance Cup Nürburgring Qualifying full results
