Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Autosport
Autosport
Sport

Macau GT World Cup: Marciello snatches last-gasp pole

Marciello, who will leave the marque after this weekend ahead of an anticipated move to BMW, left it until the very end of the 30-minute session to set the fastest time, a 2m14.542s, in his Team Landgraf Mercedes-AMG GT3.

That was more than a second underneath the existing lap record, set by the Italian/Swiss driver in qualifying for the previous edition of the GT World Cup in 2019.

"The car felt amazing," commented Marciello. "The track was very fast, and already from practice, I could feel the track was really quick compared to previous years.

"This year is pretty cold, so the track is faster, but the record doesn't really matter."

Edoardo Mortara had looked on course for pole in the closing minutes as he became the first driver to clear the 2m15s barrier, setting a 2m14.758s with a little over five minutes left on the clock.

But the Team Absolute Audi driver had to be content with second, 0.216s off the pace.

"Congrats to him [Marciello]," said seven-time Macau winner Mortara. "I was pretty happy with my lap, I pretty much nailed it when I had peak grip of the tyres. There was nothing more I believe I could have done, but we missed a little bit.

Edoardo Mortara, Audi Sport Asia Team Absolute Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo 2 (Photo by: Macau GP)

"It's a little bit frustrating but we have to accept it. I have the impression we timed our lap wrong because we went a bit early."

Maro Engel made it two Mercedes drivers in the top three in his Craft-Bamboo Racing-run car, ahead of Laurens Vanthoor in the best of the seven Porsche 911 GT3 Rs.

Sheldon van der Linde was the top BMW representative in fifth place, ahead of Dani Juncadella (Mercedes), Daniel Serra (Ferrari) and Augusto Farfus (BMW).

Completing a top 10 split by just over a second were Earl Bamber (Porsche) and Christopher Haase (Audi).

Kevin Estre caused the one and only red flag of the session when he crashed his HubAuto Racing Porsche at Lisboa.

That left the French driver facing the prospect of starting Saturday's 12-lap qualifying race from down in 13th on the grid.

Macau GP - GT World Cup qualifying results

Cla   Nº   Driver   Car / Engine   Time   Delay   Laps 
48 R.Marciello Mercedes 2'14.542   12
40 Edoardo Mortara Audi 2'14.758 0.216 12
77 Maro Engel Mercedes 2'14.908 0.366 12
99 Laurens Vanthoor Porsche 2'15.045 0.503 12
32 S.van der Linde BMW 2'15.216 0.674 12
91 D.Juncadella Mercedes 2'15.232 0.690 11
51 Daniel Serra Ferrari 2'15.254 0.712 10
11 Augusto Farfus BMW 2'15.435 0.893 12
22 Earl Bamber Porsche 2'15.491 0.949 12
10  41 C.Haase Audi 2'15.593 1.051 13
11  120 Matteo Cairoli Porsche 2'15.637 1.095 12
12  15 A.Picariello Porsche 2'15.729 1.187 12
13  27 Kévin Estre Porsche 2'15.743 1.201 4
14  28 Thomas Preining Porsche 2'16.016 1.474 12
15  33 Hong Li Ye Porsche 2'16.323 1.781 10
16  50 Adderly Fong Audi 2'16.433 1.891 13
17  2 Jules Gounon Mercedes 2'16.632 2.090 12
18  13 Cong Fu Cheng Audi 2'16.820 2.278 13
19  52 Weian Chen Ferrari 2'16.889 2.347 11
20  70 Marchy Lee Mercedes 2'20.623 6.081 12
Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.