Mercedes-AMG Team Mann-Filter has opened the 2026 season by scoring its second successive ROWE Pole Position Award at Circuit Paul Ricard courtesy of Lucas Auer, Luca Stolz and Maro Engel.<\/p>\n
Auer began their bid with the fourth best time in Qualifying 1. Next up was Stolz \u2013 a new addition to the Mamba-liveried #48 crew \u2013 who was fastest of all in Q2. This put Maro Engel in the box seat to secure pole in the final segment.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The German ace was made to sweat in the Le Castellet sun, but ultimately did enough to finish the job. Though only 11th in his session, Team Mann-Filter took pole by 0.054s.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The man making Engel and co. sweat was Benjamin Goethe, who was within a whisker of putting the #58 Garage 59 McLaren on top but ultimately had to settle for P2 on the grid. His teammates Louis Prette and Thomas Fleming also delivered strong showings in their sessions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The #7 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin will start third on the grid, aided by Nicki Thiim placing second overall in Q3. The #58 Garage 59 McLaren took fourth, though it had been fastest of all in Q1 thanks to Joseph Loake.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The #80 Lionspeed GP Porsche was fifth, followed by the #17 Mercedes-AMG Team GetSpeed, the #111 CSA Racing McLaren and the #3 Mercedes-AMG Team Verstappen Racing. The #51 AF Corse Ferrari and the #32 Team WRT BMW completed the top 10.<\/p>\n
The fastest individual lap was set by Fabian Schiller, who delivered a 1m53.049s to top Q3.\u00a0 He was followed by Thiim and Jules Gounon (#3 Mercedes-AMG). Stolz was fourth, while Simon Birch was a surprise (and very impressive) fifth in the #71 Selected Car Racing Ferrari.<\/p>\n
Among the class contenders, the #58 McLaren was the best of the Gold Cup runners in P2 overall, while the #111 CSA Racing McLaren also looked strong in P7. The #21 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin will start from Silver Cup pole (P13 overall) after a strong showing from its trio Oliver S\u00f6derstr\u00f6m, Sebastien Baud and Kobe Pauwels.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Herberth Motorsport scored Bronze Cup pole, qualifying 34th overall with its #91 Porsche. Ralf Bohn, Robert Renauer and debutant Huub van Eijndhoven combined to put their car at the head of its class. The #56 Ecurie Ecosse Blackthorn Aston Martin and the #97 Rutronik Racing Porsche were next up in 37th and 38th overall.<\/p>\n
The opening race of the 2026 GT World Challenge powered by AWS season gets underway at 18:00 CEST and will air live on the GT World YouTube<\/a> channel.\u00a0<\/p>\n