Germany and France dominated GT qualifying at the FIA Motorsport Games, locking out the front row for both qualifying races at Circuit Paul Ricard.
Friday afternoon's two 20-minute sessions ran back-to-back, setting the grids for quali races that will be staged this evening (18:00) and tomorrow (11:10). One member from each nation contested a session, with bronze-graded drivers running in the first and silvers tackling the second.
Valentin Pierburg delivered a highly accomplished performance in the opening run to put Team Germany in front. Eric Debard was in control for much of the session and looked set to put host nation France on pole, only for a late 2m04.334s from Pierburg to promote Germany to the top by half a second.
Team UK will line up third in the opening qualifying race thanks to Ian Loggie, who made it a Mercedes-AMG one-two-three with a 2m05.004s. Team Poland will start fourth, followed by Spain, Puerto Rico and Australia.
French ace Simon Gachet was the first man to set a benchmark lap in Q2, posting a blistering 2m01.817s shortly before the 10-minute mark. He lowered this to a 2m01.648s, but Gachet had a serious contender in Team Germany's Fabian Schiller, who got within 0.178s of the Frenchman.
The session was stopped with a little under five minutes remaining when Gonzalo de Andrés spun his Team Spain Mercedes-AMG at turn 6. That left time for one final effort once the track went green, but neither Gachet nor Schiller chose to run again. No one could challenge them, however, ensuring another France-Germany front-row.
Karol Basz also elected not to run, but was a comfortable P3 at the wheel of the Team Poland Audi. Evan Chen qualified fourth in the Chinese Taipei Ferrari, followed by Yannick Mettler (Team Switzerland Mercedes-AMG).
The two qualifying races will determine the grid for tomorrow afternoon's final, which takes place at 14:15. There is plenty of action to get through before that, beginning tonight at 18:00 with qualifying race 1.