Alumitec Racing swept the pole positions for the 2026 NASCAR GP Spain thanks to Gianmarco Ercoli and Raphaël Lessard’s impressive Qualifying performance.
Alumitec Racing continues their positive trend after a stunning performance from their drivers Gianmarco Ercoli and Raphaël Lessard in the Qualifying session for the 2026 NASCAR GP Spain.
Ercoli and Lessard secured the first pole position awards in 2026 on Saturday morning, showcasing that their Free Practice times were not a fluke.
Their respective times of 1:41.586 and 1:41.222 were enough to secure pole position ahead of Vittorio Ghirelli and Thomas Toffel, who will be the closest chasers to the No. 11 Alumitec Racing Ford Mustang team at Circuit Ricardo Tormo.
EuroNASCAR PRO Qualifying Recap
EuroNASCAR’s new three round format for V8GP already paid dividends with the surprise elimination of some top names in the first session.
Sebastiaan Bleekemolen and Marc Goossens were not able to extract the performance from their cars early enough, leaving the two veterans down in 18th and 19th position.
Garrett Lowe was also eliminated early after he had mechanical issues in his No. 99 BS+ Competition Camaro. The American was forced to start from last, having been unable to set a competitive lap time.
The three round format also emphasizes consistency, something that Gianmarco Ercoli mastered right away. Ercoli kept his Alumitec machine at full pace and claimed his 11th career V8GP pole position with a pole time of 1:41.586.
“Yesterday we worked very hard and this morning I did the three qualifying sessions posting the same lap times all the way,” said Ercoli.
“It’s a big pressure for me and for Alumitec Racing, it’s their first year as an independent team and we started really well. Now it’s important work for Round 1 and later for Round 2.”
Vittorio Ghirelli and Paul Jouffreau will try their best to keep Ercoli honest from second and third on the grid respectively. Fourth went to Jordan O’Brien, who validated his strong FP1 result with an excellent drive across the three sessions.
Thomas Toffel completed the top-5 ahead of Vinnie Meskelis, Thomas Krasonis, Nelson Piquet Jr., Fabrizio Armetta and Martin Doubek. Davit Kajaia led the Challenger Trophy drivers in 15th, the only Challenger driver to make it into Q2.
V8GP Q1 Results | V8GP Q2 Results | V8GP Superpole Results
EuroNASCAR OPEN Qualifying Recap
EuroNASCAR OPEN’s first Superpole since 2019 will be remembered for Raphaël Lessard’s thundering pace. Lessard managed to set a lap of 1:41.222, a time that was faster than even Ercoli’s time in V8GP.
Such was Lessard’s speed that Thomas Toffel was the only one to stay within a second of the Canadian. Toffel secured the front row with a time of 1:41.964, almost three quarters of a second behind Lessard’s No. 11 Alumitec Ford.
“I pushed as hard as I could,” said Lessard after securing his maiden pole position. “The team said to push as hard as possible on the last lap and that’s what I did. I kept missing my marks, but this time I made a perfect lap.”
“ I can’t thank my team enough, my sponsors Alumitec and Rousseau Metal, all the people that are watching from Quebec as they made this happen.”
Despite logging no track time on Friday, Vladimiros Tziortzis still managed to set the third best lap time in the session. The Cypriot qualified ahead of Hendriks teammates Gil Linster and Martin Doubek, who completed the top-5 positions.
Thomas Dombrowski qualified sixth, but was not credited as the leader of the Master Trophy. The Frenchman was promoted to Grade B status in between Free Practice and Qualifying, which made him ineligible for the Trophy classifications anymore.
This left Sandro Tavartkiladze as the leader of the Master Trophy in seventh place. The Georgian was trailed by fellow Trophy leaders Kenko Miura and Beitske Visser, who led Legend and Lady Trophies in eighth and ninth positions respectively.
Valentino Gambarotto rounded out the Superpole participants in tenth, just ahead of Melvin de Groot. Rookies Ossi Pohjanharju, Maxim van Laere and Mariam Davitidze qualified 13th, 14th and 18th respectively.
André Lortie was able to get his lap times to go below the 2 minute barrier. However, his time of 1:59.218 is still 11 seconds slower than Henri Timonen and Francesco Leogrande, who were both six seconds slower than Lessard.
EuroNASCAR OPEN Qualifying Results | EuroNASCAR OPEN Superpole Results
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