PRE-QUALIFYING REPORT: 2025 GTWC Europe at Monza
Mercedes-AMG stamped their authority on Monza pre-qualifying. Porsche hit trouble, BMW were workmanlike, and Audi’s customers salvaged pride. Here’s what we saw, and what it means for Sunday.
Mercedes-AMG sets the bar, rivals left searching for answers
If you turned up at Monza hoping for a multi-way shootout in pre-qualifying, you got… well, the Mercedes-AMG show. Saturday afternoon’s session didn’t decide the grid, but it set a tone that the other German marques, Porsche, BMW, and Audi, couldn’t ignore. Monza’s banking may be long gone, but the need for raw pace and sharp teamwork is alive and well. It was a day of ruthless consistency for some, hard lessons for others.
Why pre-qualifying matters - beyond the stopwatch
Let’s not pretend pre-qualifying is anyone’s dream. There are no points, no trophies, just the usual suspects trying to outfox each other before it really counts. But ignore these sessions at your peril. Monza’s long straights and tight chicanes punish a poor setup, and every lap is a rehearsal for the mayhem of Sunday’s traffic.
And when one brand looks this good, everyone else feels it. The paddock noticed. If you listened in the garages or watched the body language, you knew who felt confident and who was putting a brave face on things.
Mercedes-AMG: Businesslike, blisteringly quick, and not getting carried away
Nobody likes being the early favourite, but sometimes you have no choice. Jules Gounon and the #17 Mercedes-AMG Team GetSpeed crew looked unbothered at the sharp end, topping pre-qualifying with a 1:46.003. Maxime Martin in the #9 Boutsen VDS Mercedes-AMG was a whisker behind, and Maro Engel in the #48 made it a German lock-out of the top three.
Afterwards, Gounon tried to keep things calm, “So far we are working well. That’s the main focus. We’ve had two days of testing, and the work we did in the winter is paying off. But Saturday is practice, tomorrow is what counts.”
If that sounds like a man refusing to jinx himself, fair enough. But make no mistake: Mercedes-AMG have come to win, not just to warm up. Their Silver Cup runner, the #6 GetSpeed, was fastest in class, too. This happens when a manufacturer brings its A-game and doesn’t blink.
Porsche: A bruising afternoon for Rutronik, but hope isn’t lost
For Porsche, it all unravelled early. The #96 Rutronik Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R (992), the car with real title ambitions, thanks to Patric Niederhauser and Sven Müller, barely left the pit lane before grinding to a halt. One engineer told us, quietly, “It’s not what you want to see after the season we’ve had. We’ll look at everything, but it hurts.”
The car’s Zandvoort win feels very far away tonight. The rest of the Porsche runners, the likes of Herberth Motorsport and Lionspeed GP, plugged away, chasing balance and banking data, but none threatened the front. Porsche’s hopes for Sunday now rest on a clean qualifying and a charge from midfield. It’s not what you’d bet on at Monza, but it wouldn’t be the first comeback we’ve seen..
BMW: On the back foot, but not in crisis
BMW teams were everywhere except the sharp end. The Team WRT line-ups are full of talent, Weerts, van der Linde, and the rest, but pre-qualifying brought more questions than answers. ROWE Racing’s big names, Augusto Farfus, Jesse Krohn, and Raffaele Marciello, worked through their plan, but their times went largely unnoticed.
Century Motorsport’s #42 hit a snag in free practice with an electrical problem after a trip to the gravel, but that wasn’t the whole story. As one team insider put it, “If you want to win endurance races, you have to stay out of trouble. We’ll get back on track tomorrow, but it’s not ideal.”
There’s time to fix things, but if you’re looking for evidence of a late BMW surge, you have to squint.
Audi: Customer spirit, flashes of fight
Audi’s golden era as the GT3 benchmark has faded, but their customer teams keep finding ways to stay relevant. The #99 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi was again the quickest non-AMG entry, sixth in free practice, ninth in pre-qualifying, leading the Silver Cup both times. Alex Aka and his teammates squeezed every drop from the R8 LMS GT3 Evo II.
Saintéloc Racing’s Ivan Klymenko kept marshals busy with a trip to the gravel at Lesmo 2, causing the only red flag of the session. The mistake was costly, but it was a reminder that everyone’s pushing the limits in this field.
Audi’s customer teams still make life uncomfortable for rivals with bigger budgets. Audi's the brand to watch if you’re looking for plucky outsiders to shake up the order.
Incidents and talking points
- Red flag: Ivan Klymenko’s Saintéloc Audi in the gravel at Lesmo 2.
- Porsche pain: The #96 Rutronik stuck at the pit exit, losing a full session of prep.
- BMW’s electrical gremlins: Century Motorsport #42, unlucky in practice, now hoping for a smoother Sunday.
- Mercedes-AMG reliability: So far, nothing to see here. The opposition would love a hint of fragility; they didn’t get one.
Sunday’s big questions
- Will Mercedes-AMG’s dominance hold when the pressure’s on?
- Can Porsche’s #96 come back from its disastrous start?
- Will BMW find their groove, or is this not its weekend?
- Do Audi’s customer squads have a real chance at class silverware?
RSR verdict
You don’t win races on Saturday, but you can make life very hard for yourself. Mercedes-AMG have put down a marker. They’re making the rest look ordinary—never an easy thing to do in this paddock. Porsche needs a miracle, BMW need something to click, and Audi is racing with heart.
Is the story already written? Of course not. Monza is where things change fast, and the slipstream can turn heroes into also-rans. Still, if you’re a betting man, Mercedes-AMG are the team to watch.
