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Macau GT: Mortara on pole as Mercedes dominates

Edoardo Mortara claimed pole position for the FIA GT World Cup qualification race as Mercedes locked out the top four positions in a flat out qualifying session.

Edoardo Mortara, Mercedes-AMG Team Driving Academy, Mercedes - AMG GT3

Edoardo Mortara, Mercedes-AMG Team Driving Academy, Mercedes - AMG GT3

Alexander Trienitz

Mortara, a winner of five races in Macau previously, led for much of the session and lowered his benchmark time in the closing minutes to clinch a second pole in as many years for the GT race.

The Italian's eventual best time aboard his Team Driving Academy Mercedes-AMG GT3 was a 2m17.565s, although his previous best - a 2m16.657s - would have been enough for first place on its own as Daniel Juncadella ended up 0.282 seconds adrift. 

Juncadella won the Macau Grand Prix in 2012 but is making his debut in the GT race on the Guia circuit this year, and dragged his similar Team Driving Academy car up to second in the final minute of the session ahead of two-time GT race winner Maro Engel and Raffaele Marciello in their respective GruppeM Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3s.

Audi DTM regular Nico Muller wound up best of the rest in his Team WRT Audi R8 LMS, and was just 0.008s slower than Marciello, while Augusto Farfus was seventh ahead of fellow BMW driver Tom Blomqvist, who like Juncadella is making his first GT appearance at Macau this weekend.

Markus Pommer was the leading silver-rated driver in eighth in his Aust Motorsport Audi R8 LMS, ahead of Laurens Vanthoor in his Craft Bamboo Racing Porsche 911 GT3-R and Lucas di Grassi. 

Vanthoor crashed right at the end of the half-hour session after losing his 911 on the exit of Fishermen's Bend and hit the inside wall.

Second practice pacesetter Robin Frijns (Audi R8 LMS) had been fastest early on but also made a mistake at Fishermen's, although he was able to return to the pits under his own steam before returning to the circuit to record the 18th fastest time.

Qualifying results:

 Pos.Driver Car Time  Delay 
 Edoardo Mortara Mercedes 2'17.565  
 Dani Juncadella Mercedes 2'17.847 0.282
 Maro Engel Mercedes 2'17.946 0.381
 Raffaele Marciello Mercedes 2'17.998 0.433
 Nico Muller Audi 2'18.006 0.441
 Augusto Farfus BMW 2'18.075 0.510
 Tom Blomqvist BMW 2'18.306 0.741
 Markus Pommer Audi 2'18.604 1.039
 Laurens Vanthoor Porsche 2'18.657 1.092
10   Lucas di Grassi Audi 2'18.837 1.272
11   Felix Rosenqvist Ferrari 2'18.917 1.352
12   Renger van der Zande Honda 2'19.231 1.666
13   Marco Wittmann BMW 2'19.272 1.707
14   Mirko Bortolotti Lamborghini 2'19.396 1.831
15   Romain Dumas Porsche 2'20.072 2.507
16   Darryl O'Young Porsche 2'20.128 2.563
17   Robin Frijns Audi 2'20.587 3.022
18   Fabian Plentz Audi 2'21.472 3.907
19   Chaz Mostert BMW 2'24.076 6.511

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