Andrea Caldarelli, at the wheel of the #63 Orange 1 FFF racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 he shared with teammates Mirko Bortolotti and Marco Mapelli, lapped the 5.793 kms of the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza in 1:46.729 to take pole position for the opening round of the 2021 Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Powered by AWS Endurance Cup.
Caldarelli, Mapelli and Bortolotti lapped, on average, .007 seconds quicker than the #99 AKKA ASP Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Raffaele Marciello, Jules Gounon and Dani Juncadella who start alongside the #63 Lamborghini on the front row of the 43-car grid.
Completing the overall top three was the #71 Iron Lynx Ferrari F488 GT3 piloted by Callum Ilot, Antonio Fuoco and, driving the final 15-minute session, Davide Rigon.
Class honours in the Silver Cup category went to the #14 Emil Frey Racing Lamborghini of Rolf Ineichen, Alex Fontana and Ricardo Feller who lapped just over a tenth of a second quicker on average ahead of the #87 AKKA ASP Mercedes trio of Thomas Drouet, Konstantin Tereschenko and Simon Gachet.
Quickest in the Pro-Am Cup class was the #70 Inception Racing McLaren 720S GT3 of Brendan Iribe and Ollie Milroy.
Pole-sitter Caldarelli revealed that his final session had not been without its challenges.
“It was very close,” said the 2019 Blancpain GT Series champion. “We knew it was a tough field but we didn’t think it would be so close. Mirko did a mega job in Q1. Marco was a bit unlucky with traffic in Q2 and we were even more unlucky with a puncture in Q3. I was very lucky to finish the lap but luck was on our side. Thanks to all the team because they did an amazing job on the car all weekend.”
The opening round of the 2021 Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Powered by AWS Endurance Cup gets underway at 15:00 local time on Sunday April 18.
