Marvin Kirchhöfer gave McLaren its first Sprint Cup pole in almost four years by leading the way in Sunday morning's qualifying at Misano.
It continued a fine run of form for the Garage 59 ace, who bagged today's ROWE Pole Position Award three weeks after taking Superpole at the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa. Kirchhöfer posted a 1m31.482s to edge last night's race-winning star Raffaele Marciello (#46 Team WRT BMW) by 0.192s.
Third place went to Maro Engel in the #48 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG, which struggled in yesterday's qualifying but looked considerably stronger during the race. Vincent Abril completed the top five aboard the #51 AF Corse – Francorchamps Motors Ferrari, which took pole and finished second on Saturday.
The third row of the grid will be shared by the two leading Gold Cup cars. Gilles Magnus secured class pole aboard the #25 Saintéloc Racing Audi, beating Thierry Vermeulen (#69 Emil Frey Racing Ferrari) by just 0.002s.
Kobe Pauwels secured Silver Cup pole in the #21 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin. The Belgian youngster qualified eighth overall, three spots – though just 0.073s – clear of yesterday's class winner, the #99 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi driven by Alex Aka.
Kessel Racing remains the team to beat in the Bronze Cup. Dustin Blattner matched teammate Dennis Marschall by putting the #74 Ferrari on class pole, though he was only marginally faster than Isaac Tutumlu López in the #112 Garage 59 McLaren. They will start 28th and 29th overall.
A handful of expected front-runners did not qualify among the leading group. The championship-leading #32 Team WRT BMW took 15th, the #63 Grasser Racing Lamborghini was only 17th, and the #50 AF Corse Ferrari was way down the order in 25th.
This afternoon's race gets underway at 14:45 CEST and can be watched live on the GT World YouTube channel.