Tigani stuns with debut GT World Challenge pole at QR

In tricky, damp conditions, Tigani and Oscar Targett combined to take both pole positions in the #56 Tigani Motorsport Mercedes-AMG.

“It was such a late call-up, I’m in a crew suit, my suit didn’t turn up, I’m borrowing Oscar’s helmet, my helmet didn’t turn up,” Tigani said.

“Full credit to the guys and girls, the car was not right yesterday, they pulled it apart last night, they found the issue, we fixed it, and it was an absolute rocket ship this morning.

“The track’s still a bit slippery, luckily I had Oscar in my ear just coaching me the whole time.

“I actually ran off the lap, or two laps before, so I thought I’d bombed it completely, but then managed to put it together. I didn’t know I was P1 until after the chequered flag!”

Targett topped the first 15-minute session with a 1:08.4550s, going 0.170s faster than teammate Brendon Leitch.

The Mercedes contingent struggled for outright pace in Friday practice, managing a top result of sixth in the two regular sessions.

Qualifying 1 was affected by a red flag at the halfway point, when Cameron Rees found the Turn 6 gravel in the Volante Rosso Aston Martin.

At that point, neither Jaxon Evans nor Will Davison had set a representative lap time.

The session resumed with a handful of minutes remaining, during which the Tigani Mercedes pair rocketed to the top.

Reigning champion Broc Feeney was third fastest, followed by Davison, and Ryan Wood.

Evans recovered from being stuck down the order to qualify sixth.

Jayden Ojeda set the fastest time on his penultimate lap, however, ran wide as the clock wound down, dropping to seventh on the grid as a result.

Luke Youlden (#71 Porsche), Paul Stokell (#24 Audi), and Josh Buchan (#23 Ferrari) rounded out the top 10.

When the Am drivers rolled out for Qualifying 2, Tigani elected to give Paul Lucchitti and Sergio Pires a fresh set of tyres, while the majority of runners elected to stay on their existing sets.

The fastest time changed hands almost lap by lap as the track continued to improve, with Renee Gracie looking strong after showing impressive speed on Friday.

Tigani set a 1:07.5870s lap in the closing stages to take pole position ahead of Gracie.

Pires shot to third in the #44 Mercedes just moments before the red flag came out for Cameron Campbell, who went off and got bogged in the grass.

Brad Schumacher was fourth fastest ahead of Elliott Schutte in the ARGT Ferrari.

Schutte looked poised to shoot up to the front before a red flag in the closing seconds for Cameron Campbell scuppered his run.

The fresh tyre gamble did not pay off for Lucchitti, who fell to ninth spot.

The results of Qualifying 2 set the grid for Saturday afternoon’s opening race, set to commence at 1:15pm AEST.

Results: GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWQ Queensland Raceway, Qualifying 1

Results: GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWQ Queensland Raceway, Qualifying 2