Monza smiles on Mustang: historic pole position
The Ford Mustang GT3 took its first pole position in the GT World Challenge powered by AWS at Monza thanks to an outstanding performance by the HRT crew of Arjun Maini, Fabio Scherer and Thomas Drouet. Until now, the car had never managed to qualify beyond 18th place, but in this morning’s session it showed a completely different level of competitiveness. The result was built from the very beginning by Maini, who set the best overall time in Q1.
Scherer and Drouet then achieved the second best time in Q2 and Q3 respectively, securing the Mustang the prestigious ROWE Pole Position Award. Team Verstappen Racing’s #3 Mercedes-AMG, driven by Daniel Juncadella, Thierry Vermeulen Lulham and Jules Gounon, had initially claimed the second position in qualifying, but will start from seventh on the grid due to a penalty received during free practice.
Benefiting from the relegation was the #99 Audi of the Tresor Attempto Racing team, which will start from second position thanks to the excellent performance of Dylan Pereira, Andrea Frassineti and Lorenzo Patrese. The crew also took pole position in the Gold Cup class, with a six-position lead over the leading competitor in the category.
Third overall and Silver Cup pole for HRT Ford Racing’s #65 Ford Mustang, completing a memorable day for the German team. Finn Wiebelhaus finished fifth overall in Q1, Eduardo Coseteng got the 12th time in Q2 and Maxime Oosten completed the task with the third best time in Q3. The McLarens of Optimum Motorsport and Team RJN placed second and third in the Silver Cup, but they will start from 19th and 20th place overall, respectively.
The McLaren of Team RJN deserves a special mention of its own: in fact, Ben Dörr set the best overall time of the entire qualifying session in Q3. The German driver stopped the clock at 1’45″323, trimming more than two tenths off Thomas Drouet. If the first three cars on the grid represent a surprise among the top players, the next positions will feature more usual names. In fact, from fourth to sixth place will start the #80 Porsche of Lionspeed GP, the #51 Ferrari of AF Corse and the #48 Mercedes-AMG of Team Mann-Filter.
The Mercedes-AMG of Team Verstappen Racing, penalized, will start from seventh position, ahead of the #10 Porsche of Boutsen VDS (second in the Gold Cup), the #32 BMW of Team WRT and the #7 Aston Martin of Comtoyou Racing, winner of the last round held at Circuit Paul Ricard.
In the Bronze Cup, the best result went to Winward Racing, with Gabriele Piana, Marvin Dienst and Rinat Salikhov leading a convincing performance at the wheel of their Mercedes-AMG. The crew will start from 17th place overall, ahead of all but one Silver Cup car. Reigning champions Kessel Racing (Ferrari) and last year’s Monza winners Rutronik Racing (Porsche) will start from second and third respectively in their category.
The second round of the 2026 Endurance Cup of the GT World Challenge powered by AWS will kick off this afternoon in Monza. The lights will go out at 3:40 p.m. (CEST), with the race broadcast live on the GT World YouTube channel.
