Thomas Preining in the fan favourite ‘Grello’ dominated the opening phase of the 53rd edition of the ADAC RAVENOL 24h Nürburgring from pole position. After the atmospheric formation lap, the former DTM champion from Austria confidently claimed first place from the starting grid, which his team-mate Kevin Estre from France had taken in Friday’s top qualifying. He pulled away a little before the first entrance to the Nordschleife and then steadily increased his lead by around three seconds per lap. Even after he was held up a little by a lapped car in a Code 60 phase, he quickly pulled away again until he handed the ‘Grello’ over to Estre after seven laps just before the end of the first hour of the race. “Huge thanks to the team for letting me drive the start. Normally that’s Kevin’s job. It was a great feeling. We adapted the car step by step to the hot conditions, which we are not really used to here.”
Augusto Farfus moves up from 17th on the grid to ninth place
Behind Preining, Maro Engel in the #14 Getspeed-Mercedes-AMG improved from third to second place by overtaking the #45 Rinaldi-Ferrari with David Perel from South Africa at the wheel before the first corner. Brazilian Augusto Farfus made the biggest leap forward in the opening phase. In the #98 Rowe-BMW, he moved up from 17th on the grid to tenth by the time he entered the Nordschleife for the first time and made up another place as the race progressed, before making an early pit stop after the fifth lap, as did several other cars. Other teams headed to the pits for the first time after the sixth lap to change tyres and refuel.
Huge crowd of fans at the Nürburgring
In glorious summer weather, the spectator areas on the Nordschleife and the grandstands around the Grand Prix circuit were filled to capacity and the fans were in high spirits. The starting grid, where Kevin Estre was awarded the Glickenhaus Trophy for pole position, was well attended. Those who did not make the journey to the Eifel can follow the action on the track at home on free TV partner NITRO as well as on the official live streams on YouTube (www.YouTube.com/24hNBR) and on the official event website (www.24h-rennen.de/live).
