August Farfus gave BMW Team Schnitzer the provisional pole for the 45th ADAC Zurich 24h Race at the Nürburgring. In the BMW M6 GT3 #43, the Brazilian set the fastest lap time by crossing the line in 8:22.307 minutes. Second position, with a gap of 0.948 second to the quickest, was secured by the Bentley Abt Team #39, followed by the pole-sitters’ sister car, the Schnitzer BMW #42, 1.565 seconds behind the fastest.
1 – Engel / Christodoulou / Buurman / Metzger (Mercedes-AMG GT3)
21:36hrs Manuel Metzger: “It was a good session and we had fun. The first lap was somewhat difficult as the position of the sun was very low. The situation was better on lap two but now I was hampered by a lot of traffic. Therefore, my first lap was faster. The car felt good . Anything i9s running as planned. We want to make it to the top 30 and should we fail to do so this would be a disappointment.”
4 – Haupt / Al Faisal / Stolz / Juncadella (Mercedes-AMG GT3)
23:01hrs Luca Stolz: “We still had some problems in the free practice session and our main goal was to solve them. Furthermore, we still have to qualify for the Top 30 Qualifying and currently, the situation looks quite promising. But tomorrow we will have to push again to make sure that we really make it.”
20:39hrs The quickest with a 8:29.260-minute lap. Slightly faster than the team-mates in car #1.
5 – Stippler / Rockenfeller / Busch / Moller Madsen (AUDI R8 LMS)
22:37hrs Mike Rockenfeller: “There still is a lot of traffic, out there. Apparently a lot of teams are looking for the racing line in the dark. Our car feels good and we are working on completing our programme.”
8 – Alzen / Arnold / Götz / van der Zande (Mercedes-AMG GT3)
23:17hrs Uwe Alzen: “I completed the two laps I needed to qualify. The track is in a good condition. There were no accidents. We now focus on our preparations for the Top 30 Qualifying as we already are qualified.”
22:18hrs Lance David Arnold: “Our car has been repaired and it’s running well. We now have to adjust the lights and test several other things at night.”
21:16hrs Maximilian Götz on the open bonnet in the closing stages of the session. “This was the result of a minor rear-end collision Uwe Alzen had with a Porsche, a misunderstanding on the GP circuit during an overtaking manoeuvre. The car was slightly compressed and the bonnet opened.” But it wasn’t a major damage and was quickly repaired.”
19 – Klingmann / Müller / Edwards / Onslow – Cole (BMW M6 GT3)
22:10hrs John Edwards: “I didn’t drive in the afternoon and so I drove my first laps at dawn. In these conditions, the Nordschleife is even more special. Altogether, everything was fine. Finally, the preparation time is over and the action is on.”
20 – Krohn / Müller / Spengler / Wittmer (BMW M6 GT3)
22:47hrs Bruno Spengler: “I first of all I had t to carefully approach to racing at night. There was quite a lot if traffic, several yellow flags and Code 60. It was good that I could gather so much night experience.”
22 – Weiss / Kainz / Keilwitz / Krumbach (Ferrari 488 GT3)
22:55hrs The team works on the jacked-up car.
21:54hrs With a 8:23.737-minute lap Jochen Krumbach sets the second-fastest time.
21:06hrs Daniel Keilwitz: “A lot of traffic out there. I think I lost 10 seconds on the GP circuit alone. Now the cars will be spread all over the circuit and so, we all should be able to go faster.”
29 – De Phillippi / Mies / Winkelhock / van der Linde (Audi R8 LMS)
21:30hrs Kelvin van der Linde: “The conditions currently are really nice. Okay, the low position of the sun is slightly disturbing but the track is in a good condition and the temperature is dropping. This means that the tyres will get into a good working frame. We currently are working our race setup and only tomorrow we will go out for a fast qualifying lap.” We made some setup changes that proved to be real improvements. This race with all the fans and camp fires is truly incredible.”
30 – Abbelen / Schmitz / Ziegler / Müller (Porsche 911 GT3 R)
21:28hrs Driver swap: Andreas Ziegler is replaced by Sabine Schmitz.
33 – Dumbreck / Imperatori / Dusseldorp / Seefried (BMW M6 GT3)
23:34hrs The Falken BMW doesn’t meet the minimum height that has been stipulated for this year. The result: a 10-position grid penalty after the qualifying.
37 – Brück / Menzel / Verdonck / Jöns (Bentley Continental GT3)
22:54hrs Christopher Brück: “The conditions aren’t perfect. There is a lot of dirt on the track. Therefore we are slower than in previous races. Tomorrow we should be able to faster as the circuit slowly is getting cleaner.”
21:15hrs Driving slowly at the Döttinger Höhe area
38 – Jöns / Mamerow / Pepper / Brück (Bentley Continental GT3)
21:16hrs Christer Jöns: “I now completed my first multi-lap stint. The conditions were interesting as the sun is just setting. We still have to improve some details.”
42 – Wittmann / Blomqvist / Tomczyk / Farfus (BMW M6 GT3)
21:04hrs 8:23.872 minutes – new fastest lap time Min.
43 – Farfus / Lynn / Felix Da Costa / Scheider (BMW M6 GT3)
23:29hrs Augusto Farfus has set a new fastest lap time (8:22.307 minutes) that is a 10th of a second faster than the one previously set by his team-mate Antonio Felix da Costa.
23:28hrs Timo Scheider: “We basically are happy with our position. As we have not yet qualified we now really have to go for it. And the fact that we did so in the dark is particularly nice. But I think that we will witness several changes in Q2. Antonio set the time on soft tyres. A very good feat for a Nordschleife rookies.”
23:17hrs Takes the lead with an 8:22.402-minute lap.
47 – Asch / Baumann / Hohenadel / Mücke (Mercedes-AMG GT3)
22:19hrs Christian Hohenadel: “We adjusted the headlights and checked if everything is fine. It’s perfect! I now will drive a lap in the dark to prepare myself for the night stints.”
21:53hrs Baumann after his stint: “Unfortunately our right front tyre lost pressure. We still have to find out what happened. We have to adjust the headlights as soon as it’s dark out there.”
48 – Heyer / Schneider / Dontje / Assenheimer (Mercedes-AMG GT3)
22:00hra Kenneth Heyer: “Actually the session was quite good. We are testing two things in today’s qualifying session and one of these two changes already worked really well. We clearly improved our pace and everything is running as scheduled.”
50 – Baumann / Buhk / Mortara / Sandström (Mercedes-AMG GT3)
22:22hrs Edward Sandström: “Driving on the Nordschleife in the dark is really big fun. It’s a privilege to have the chance of driving such a fantastic car on the Nordschleife- Everything went fine in my stint.”
704 – Westphal / Mailleux / Simonsen / Laser (SCG SCG003C)
23:06Uhsr Felipe Laser: “We had to come in for a short unscheduled stop. We currently are trying different brake pads and had to pit to change them, But we will go out again right away
911 – Dumas / Makowiecki / Pilet / Lietz (Porsche 911 GT3 R)
23:15hrs Richard Lietz is replaced by Romain Dumas and say: “Things are running well, so far but it goes without saying that we want to improve consistently. Currently we are still working on the setup – but only on details, After all, every driver is supposed to feel comfortable in the car. Everything making a driver’s life easier is very important.”