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Bentley takes pole for Paul Ricard Blancpain GT Endurance Cup race

Bentley Team M-Sport claimed a maiden pole position for the 1000-kilometre Blancpain GT Endurance Cup race at the Paul Ricard Circuit

Jordan Pepper, Steven Kane, and Jules Gounon took the top spot in the three-part qualifying session with a 1m53.338s average aboard their Bentley Continental GT3 and claimed Team M-Sport's first pole position.

Their average time put them just 53 thousands of a second ahead of the reigning champions of Maro Engel, Luca Stolz and Yelmer Buurman in the Black Falcon Mercedes AMG GT3.

Gounon set the fastest lap of the weekend in the third and final qualifying session with a 1m52.671 as the trio aims to secure Bentley's third win at the Paul Ricard Circuit.

"It was one of those days where everything came together," said Gounon.

"I had a good slipstream in sector two, and we had had a lot of bad luck since this race last season. So it feels amazing to be on pole, Jordan [Pepper] did a great job in Q1, and Steven [Kane] did a great job in Q2 as well in traffic."

The Attempto Racing squad of Steijn Schothorst, Pieter Schothorst, and Mattia Drudi in the 55 Audi R8 LMS took third position and the fastest time in sliver class with an average time of a 1m54.741.

The Orange 1 FFF Racing Team in the Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo matched the average time of the Attempo Racing team and will start fourth for the six-hour race.

Rowe Racing's Porsche 911 GT3 and R-Motorsport's Aston Martin Vantage GT3 qualified in fifth and sixth.

The 54 Dinamic Motorsport team entry had provisional pole after the first two qualifying sessions but ended qualifying in seventh place.

Ultimately, the team will start from 12th place after taking a five-place grid penalty for speeding in the pit-lane.

The Garage 59 Aston Martin Vantage of Come Ledogar, Andrew Watson, and Jonny Adam will start in eighth ahead of GRT Grasser Racing team who took pole in the last round at Silverstone.

The AKKA ASP Team in a Mercedes AMG will start in tenth place.

Raffaele Marciello's 88 Mercedes AMG will start from the pit-lane after qualifying in 13th as his team had to change its engine after pre-qualifying.

Qualifying results

Pos Driver Team Car Time Gap
1 Jules Gounon Bentley Team M-Sport Bentley 1m52.671s -
2 Maxime Martin R-Motorsport Aston Martin 1m52.705s 0.034s
3 Mirko Bortolotti GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini 1m52.831s 0.160s
4 Mathieu Jaminet Rowe Racing Porsche 1m52.934s 0.263s
5 Mattia Drudi Attempto Racing Audi 1m53.007s 0.336s
6 Charlie Eastwood Oman Racing Team with TF Sport Aston Martin 1m53.139s 0.468s
7 Dennis Olsen Rowe Racing Porsche 1m53.144s 0.473s
8 Felipe Fraga Akka ASP Team Mercedes 1m53.146s 0.475s
9 Rik Breukers Belgian Audi Club Team WRT Audi 1m53.162s 0.491s
10 Yelmer Buurman Black Falcon Mercedes 1m53.176s 0.505s
11 Davide Rigon SMP Racing Ferrari 1m53.210s 0.539s
12 Sandy Mitchell Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini 1m53.220s 0.549s
13 Marco Mapelli Orange 1 FFF Racing Team Lamborghini 1m53.237s 0.566s
14 Tom Onslow-Cole RAM Racing Mercedes 1m53.262s 0.591s
15 Marvin Kirchhofer R-Motorsport Aston Martin 1m53.333s 0.662s
16 Franck Perera Orange 1 FFF Racing Team Lamborghini 1m53.409s 0.738s
17 Gabriele Piana Black Falcon Mercedes 1m53.476s 0.805s
18 Seb Morris Team Parker Racing Bentley 1m53.491s 0.820s
19 Andrea Bertolini Spirit of Race Ferrari 1m53.505s 0.834s
20 Kelvin van der Linde Attempto Racing Audi 1m53.506s 0.835s
21 Andrea Rizzoli Dinamic Motorsport Porsche 1m53.511s 0.840s
22 Come Ledogar Garage 59 Aston Martin 1m53.518s 0.847s
23 Christopher Haase Sainteloc Junior Team Audi 1m53.558s 0.887s
24 Markus Winkelhock Sainteloc Junior Team Audi 1m53.561s 0.890s
25 Maxime Soulet Bentley Team M-Sport Bentley 1m53.587s 0.916s
26 Vincent Abril Mercedes-AMG Team Akka ASP Mercedes 1m53.714s 1.043s
27 Alex Riberas Belgian Audi Club Team WRT Audi 1m53.780s 1.109s
28 Arno Santamato GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini 1m53.839s 1.168s
29 Rinat Salikhov Rinaldi Racing Ferrari 1m53.945s 1.274s
30 Shae Davies Belgian Audi Club Team WRT Audi 1m54.045s 1.374s
31 Dean Stoneman Ombra Racing Lamborghini 1m54.218s 1.547s
32 Stuart Hall GPX Racing Porsche 1m54.259s 1.588s
33 Chris Froggatt Spirit of Race Ferrari 1m54.437s 1.766s
34 Chris Goodwin Garage 59 Aston Martin 1m54.472s 1.801s
35 Kris Richard Daiko Lazarus Racing Lamborghini 1m54.488s 1.817s
36 Miguel Ramos Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini 1m54.500s 1.829s
37 Michele Beretta Orange 1 FFF Racing Team Lamborghini 1m54.595s 1.924s
38 Matt McMurry Jenson Team Rocket RJN Honda 1m54.608s 1.937s
39 Finlay Hutchison Phoenix Racing Audi 1m54.611s 1.940s
40 Mauro Calamia Scuderia Villorba Corse Mercedes 1m54.634s 1.963s
41 Jose Manuel Balbiani Rinaldi Racing Ferrari 1m54.795s 2.124s
42 Renaud Kuppens Boutsen Ginion Racing Lamborghini 1m54.861s 2.190s
43 Wolfgang Triller Team HB Racing Ferrari 1m55.080s 2.409s
44 Fabien Barthez Tech 1 Racing Lexus 1m55.394s 2.723s
45 Christoph Lenz Target Racing Srl Lamborghini 1m55.492s 2.821s
46 Jean-Luc Beaubelique Akka ASP Team Mercedes 1m55.576s 2.905s
47 Steve Parrow Rinaldi Racing Ferrari 1m56.446s 3.775s

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