The sun has set on day one of the 24 hours of the Nürburgring. A day filled with practice and pre-qualifying has not given us a clear favourite for the win. In the changing conditions of practice and qualifying, it was obvious that the factory supported teams were ruling the Nordschleife, but with dry weather in the forecast for the rest of the weekend, times today mean nothing.
At the top of the timing display the first place changed hands almost by the minute. When the time stopped shortly before midnight, it was Phoenix Racing’s Christopher Haase, Christian Mamerow, René Rast and Markus Winkelhock who profited from a drying track and ended the day on top after the brand new Audi R8 LMS did a lap just a fraction faster than Maxime Martin, Lucas Luhr, Markus Palttala and Richard Westbrook in the Marc VDS BMW.
With only four tenths separating the leader and third placed WRT Audi of Christer Joens, Pierre Kaffer, Nicki Thiim and Laurens Vanthoor, tomorrow’s Top 40 Shoot-out for pole position promises to be a tight battle.
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