•    Exciting qualifying for second event of Prototype Cup Europe season at Nürburgring
•    America’s Danny Soufi charges to race one pole in GMS Team Ligier JS P325
•    Markus Pommer similarly impressive in Q2 at wheel of BWT Mücke Duqueine D09
•    Watch both LMP3 prototype races live on YouTube at Creventic Motorsports TV

Nürburgring, Germany (3 July 2026):
Prototype Cup Europe made a very welcome return to competitive action today at Nürburgring GP Circuit, over three months since the start of the 2026 season, with a pair of entertaining qualifying sessions delivering round two pole positions for Germany’s GMS Team and BWT Mücke Motorsport.

Making his first appearance of the campaign with GMS Team, America’s Danny Soufi – last year’s Prototype Cup Germany Champion – starred in the race one qualifying session to seal pole in the No.11 Ligier JS P325 by a full half second.

In qualifying two later in the afternoon, double Prototype Cup Germany title winner Markus Pommer took BWT Mücke Motorsport’s second pole of the new era of Prototype Cup Europe but the first for the squad’s No.18 Duqueine D09.

With the addition of three new teams this weekend, and some high-profile returning drivers, great action was expected in the grid-determining sessions of the pan-European LMP3 level championship and it was certainly delivered.

Soufi took the first session for GMS and started as he meant to go on, setting the initial benchmark in the No.11 Ligier. Mattis Pluschkell though, in the No.8 BWT Mücke Motorsport Duqueine also had his sights on race one pole and soon moved to the top of the timing screens with a lap of 1m50.798s.

For the most part, those two were the class of the field as they traded provisional pole throughout the 15-minutes. Pluschkell was the first into the sub 1m50s bracket with a great time of 1m49.752 seconds, but with five minutes remaining Soufi closed to within just 0.024s.

Championship leader Maxim Dirickx was still building his pace at the wheel of the No.3 Aust Motorsport Ligier, moving up to third later in the session ahead of Mads Kjelde Larsen in the No.18 BWT Mücke car – Dirickx also shrinking the gap to the top two from over a second to half a second. 

Into the final minute Soufi had an advantage of almost three tenths over Pluschkell, but on his final lap the GMS Team racer stamped his authority further with a time of 1m49.218s to earn race one pole by half a second, Pluschkell ended the session second with Dirickx third and 0.6s shy of pole.

Another to deliver a fantastic improvement on his final lap was Zino Fahlke, making his series debut, to rocket into fourth with his last effort of 1m50.876s in the Duqueine D09 of newcomer squad Larea GT1 Racing. 

Session two, at 17:45 local time, was red flagged after only three minutes following an unfortunate excursion into the gravel for the series debuting P4 Racing Ligier of Louis Hamilton-Smith. The delay didn’t last long, the session resuming with just over 11 minutes remaining on the clock.

Championship debutant Nigel Moore was the first to set a pole-challenging time with a lap of 1m51.114s in the No.3 Aust Motorsport Ligier shared with Dirickx, but Pommer immediately stole Moore’s thunder in the No.18 Duqueine and on his second flyer the German was the first driver to lap beneath the 1m50s bracket with a time of 1m49.700s.

With only four minutes to run, Pommer and Moore were split by half a second while Valentino Catalano was less than a tenth away from the front row in the GMS Team Ligier. On his next lap, Catalano punched in a time of 1m49.809s to leap ahead of Moore by a mere eight hundredths. 

Pommer continued to push, ending up with a pole time of 1m49.234s, with Catalano also improving to a quickest of 1m49.518s. Moore ended up third quickest for Aust, just under 0.3s clear of the second BWT Mücke Duqueine of Tobias Bille Clausen.

Fahlke was the fastest of the sole drivers in the Larea GT1 Duqueine, setting the fifth fastest time ahead of Linus Hellberg’s Allay Racing Ligier and the sister Allay car of his brother Emil. The debuting Adess AD25, in the hands of joint 2025 Prototype Cup Germany Champion Pavel Lefterov, rounds out row four of the race two grid for the PURPLE SECTOR squad.

Race one of the weekend for Prototype Cup Europe is timetabled to start at 10.15 local time tomorrow, Saturday, 4 July, with the second contest following at 09.00 on Sunday, 5 July. Both races will be streamed live online at YouTube through the Creventic Motorsports TV channel. Find the links to race coverage and live timing at www.prototype-cup-europe.com