Defending champion Rowe Racing has secured pole position for the ADAC Total 24h Race at the Nürburgring. After a downpour delayed the Top Qualifying shoot-out finale, Nick Yelloly battled the rain to score pole with a lap of 10:01.619.
NÜRBURGRING 24 HOURS: ENTRY LIST | LIVESTREAM | NEWS | VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS
REPORTS: QUALIFYING 1 | QUALIFYING 2 | QUALIFYING 3 | TOP QUALIFYING | PRE-RACE NOTEBOOK | RACE UPDATE 1 | RACE UPDATE 2 – RED FLAG | RACE UPDATE 3 – FINISH
DRIVER REPORTS | THURSDAY: BEN TUCK | LARS KERN | THOMAS KIEFER | ADAM CHRISTODOULOU | MAREK BÖCKMANN
FRIDAY: LARS KERN | BEN TUCK | ADAM CHRISTODOULOU | THOMAS KIEFER | MAREK BÖCKMANN
RACE | SATURDAY: BEN TUCK | MAREK BÖCKMANN | ADAM CHRISTODOULOU | THOMAS KIEFER
SUNDAY: BEN TUCK | ADAM CHRISTODOULOU | MAREK BÖCKMANN
Top Qualifying 1 saw a stampede out of the pits as the rain radar showed rain heading for the track. Dries Vanthoor got the required time dropping in a lap of 8:12.319 in the Audi Sport Team Phoenix Audi R8 LMS GT3 just before the heavens opened and the track turned into a river.
Behind the Belgian was Maro Engel in the #6 Mercedes-AMG Team HRT Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo putting in a time 1.345 seconds behind Vanthoor. Augusto Farfus in the BMW Junior Team BMW M6 GT3 was a further 1.208 behind Engel and fourth went to Marco Mapelli in the #63 Hanook FFF Racing Team Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo. With a time of 8:15.653 the Italian-Chinese team was the last to make the cut-off and move into the second session where the Glickenhaus Trophy for pole position would be awarded.
With the downpour making driving almost impossible and with lightning forking across the sky, Q2 was delayed for nearly an hour as race control waited for the rain to ease and the track to clear.
When things did get underway, the rain was still falling heavily and the times affected accordingly. Rowe Racing took pole after two outstanding laps from Nick Yelloly clocking up a lap of 10:01.619 in the #1 BMW M6 GT3, 2.308 seconds ahead of the Konrad Motorsport Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo. Axcil Jefferies needed just one lap to secure second place having already claimed P1 in Qualifying 3 earlier in the day.
Behind Jefferies was Manuel Metzger putting the #4 Mercedes-AMG Team HRT Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo on third with a lap of 10:06.738.
Jessie Krohn put the Schubert Motorsport BMW M6 GT3 on fourth, ahead of the the #6 Mercedes-AMG Team HRT Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Nico Bastian who had performed so well taking first place in Qualifying 1 on Thursday.
Surprise of the session was the lack of Porsche representation in the top 10 with just Julian Andlauer squeezing the #3 Rutronik Racing Porsche 991.2 GT3R into ninth with a lap of 10:14.558. In eleven was Kévin Estre aboard the Manthey Racing Porsche who having caught and passed Frank Stippler’s Phoenix Racing Audi, then fell victim to the conditions spinning off at Adenauer Forst and kissing the barriers.
The highest-placed Ferrari was the #26 Octane126 Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo with Luca Ludwig posting a best lap of 10:31.275.
Teams and drivers have one final session to prepare for this weekend’s 24-hour race. Warming-up is scheduled for Saturday at 11:30 CEST, followed by the start of the race at 15:30 CEST. You can watch all the action live on GT.REPORT/live.
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