Mercedes to start Kyalami 9 Hour from pole after rain cancels qualifying

Competitors running in the Intercontinental GT Challenge were unable to set any official qualifying times for Saturday's Kyalami 9 Hour endurance race thanks to torrential afternoon rain. All three of Friday's qualifying sessions were cancelled due to heavy storms that caused an excessive amount of standing water out on the 4.529 kilometre circuit. 

Thanks to the weather not improving officials announced at 5pm that the superpole session would not be going ahead either, effectively ending the day's proceedings. 

This means that Friday's pre-qualifying results now set the grid for Saturday's race. As such the No.89 AKKA ASP Mercedes-AMG GT3 piloted by Jules Gounon, Raffaele Marciello and Timur Boguslavskiy will start on pole position followed by Nicklas Nielsen, Alessio Rovera and Antonio Fuoco in the No.71 AF Corse Ferrari 488. The No.51 AF Corse Ferrari 488 piloted by Miguel Molina, Alessandro Pier Guidi and Come Ledogar will begin in third. 

The No.25 Audi Sport Team Sainteloc R8 LMS GT3 of Patric Niederhauser, Markus Winkelhock and SA's very own Kelvin van der Linde will line up fifth on the starting grid. 

The 2022 Kyalami 9 Hour starts on Saturday at 1pm.