VLN3 qualifying report: Haupt Racing Team claims pole for Sunday race

Yesterday’s winner Haupt Racing Team continued its form by taking pole position on Sunday morning for the third VLN Nürburgring Endurance Series race of the season. The #16 Mercedes-AMG Team HRT Mercedes-AMG GT3 (Maro Engel/Manuel Metzger/Adam Christodoulou/Luca Stolz) was put on pole position by Luca Stolz with a time of 7:58.675 for the second leg of the doubleheader race weekend.

VLN2: QUALIFYING REPORT | RACE REPORT

Luca Stolz went out for his qualifying lap early on in the session. With a clear track in front of him, the young German was able to set a fastest time of 7:58.675 and left it there until the chequered flag flew. Traffic, Code 60s and oil on track prevented others from grabbing pole, although any of the sub-8 minute laps by Kim Luis Schramm, Björn Grossmann and Maximilian Götz would’ve been impressive as pole laps as well.

The #15 Phoenix Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 (Michele Beretta/Kim Luis Schramm) missed pole by just 0.231 seconds, having to settle for second place.

Row two on the grid will be shared by the #26 Octane126 Ferrari 488 GT3 (Björn Grossmann/Simon Trummer/Jonathan Hirschi/Luca Ludwig) and #2 Mercedes-AMG Team GetSpeed Mercedes-AMG GT3 (Maximilian Götz/Fabian Schiller/Raffaele Marciello) with the Italian machine edging out the three-pointed star by 0.559 seconds.

Not inside the 8-minute mark was the #34 Walkenhorst Motorsport BMW M6 GT3 (Christian Krognes/David Pittard). Whereas Christian Krognes qualified the car on the front row on Saturday while being only one of two drivers under 8 minutes, Krognes was unable to improve on his early 8:00.079. He and co-driver David Pittard will have to do with Mikkel Jensen today as the Dane is off testing elsewhere.

The #42 BMW Team Schnitzer BMW M6 GT3 (Martin Tomczyk/Sheldon van der Linde) competes the third starting row.