Thomas Fleming delivered a stunning lap in the #10 Garage 59 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo to secure pole position for the 6 Hours of Barcelona, beating Manthey’s Riccardo Pera by just 0.122 seconds.
Garage 59’s #10 McLaren will lead the LMGT3 field away at the 6 Hours of Barcelona after Tom Fleming produced the only sub-1:41 lap in Hyperpole. His 1:40.933 secured the team’s second pole position of the FIA World Endurance Championship season, adding to its success at Imola.
Fleming’s achievement was particularly impressive given that he missed the first three practice sessions while balancing his WEC commitments with the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup finale in Portugal. The British driver made the most of the package prepared by teammates Antares Au and Marvin Kirchhoefer, with Au particularly impressive during his part of qualifying before Fleming delivered the decisive lap.
“It’s a credit to the team constantly performing and giving us a really good package,” Fleming said. “Marvin and Antares and the team and the engineers did an amazing job setting up the car for me, so it made the transition phase as easy as possible.”
The pole also continued an impressive personal statistic for Fleming: this was only his second Hyperpole appearance of the season, and both times he has converted it into pole position.
Manthey’s Riccardo Pera came closest to challenging the McLaren, setting a 1:41.055 in the #92 Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo to secure second on the grid. Simon Mann placed the #21 Vista AF Corse Ferrari third, 0.465 seconds off the pace, despite having topped the earlier LMGT3 practice session.
The Corvettes were among the standout performers in the opening qualifying phase. Peter Dempsey put the #34 TF Sport Corvette at the top of Q1, while both the #33 TF Sport entry and the #34 Racing Team Turkey car advanced to Hyperpole. Alongside Ford, Corvette was the only manufacturer to get both cars through to the final shootout.
Jonny Edgar subsequently secured fourth in the #33 TF Sport Corvette, marking the first time this season that the car has reached Hyperpole. The result gives the championship-leading crew a strong opportunity to strengthen its position in the title fight, with Edgar and TF Sport targeting the drivers’ and teams’ championships.
Rui Andrade completed the top five in the #61 Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG, ahead of Sean Gelael’s #32 Team WRT BMW, fresh from its Fuji victory. The remaining Hyperpole positions went to Akkodis ASP’s Lexus, the two Proton Competition Ford Mustangs and the #34 Corvette, which qualified tenth.
It was a difficult session for Aston Martin. Neither Heart of Racing entry reached Hyperpole, with Ian James ending Q1 in 18th and last in the #27 Vantage, while the sister #23 car qualified 14th. Garage 59’s #58 McLaren also missed the cut, finishing 16th.
For the pole-sitting crew, however, the result offered a welcome reward after a challenging recent run of races. Au highlighted the collective effort behind the performance, saying: “To see that our collective effort come together in qualifying is a real relief, and the work’s not done yet.”
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