In the final minutes of qualifying for Sunday’s race at the ADAC Nürburgring 24h Qualifiers, lap times dropped once again. After the session began in the morning on a still-damp track, the surface dried out further as qualifying progressed, meaning conditions improved significantly. It was ultimately Christian Krognes who set the fastest time in the Walkenhorst Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 #34 with a lap of 8:18.515 minutes. He was 2.168 seconds faster than Alessio Picariello (BEL) in the Dunlop Porsche 911 GT3 R #17.
#3 Verstappen / Auer (Mercedes-AMG GT3)
08:57 is currently in second place – Lucas Auer is at the wheel
09:07 Max Verstappen gets behind the wheel and is now out on the track
09:14 Lucas Auer: “The first few laps were okay. The track is slowly drying out. Our aim is to build up laps and gather data. We want to make the final fine-tuning adjustments to the car and take note of the various track conditions.”
09:47 Max Verstappen: “This is an important weekend for me, also to support Lukas a bit. Of all of us, he’s spent the least time in the car so far, so it’s important to get him up to speed within the group. The car is working really well. At the same time, I’m still learning myself when it comes to the setup – we’re still trying out little things to find even more pace. The other teams are also working on their fine-tuning and balance, and that’s exactly what we’re trying to do as well. Hopefully everything will be right for the main race. Today is simply about gaining more racing experience and getting even more familiar with the car. You also have to look at the conditions: we’ve been driving in the wet now, hopefully it will dry out later. But there could still be wet patches where the grass is damp – so you have to be a bit careful when overtaking off the ideal line. For me, it’s good to just get a feel for all the conditions. I’ve wanted to compete here for quite some time. I’ve followed a lot of endurance racing, and this is definitely one of the ‘toughest’ races there is. Now that I’ve got the chance to do it for the first time, I’m naturally very excited to see how it all goes.”
#7 Stalidzane / Paul / Lefterov (Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2)
09:10 Franz Konrad, Team Principal at Konrad Motorsport: “I can barely speak today; I’ve got such a bad cold. So, naturally, we’ve set our sights on competing at the front. But the conditions are extremely poor and you really need to have the right tyres on now. We’ve already had a minor collision whilst lapping. But the car’s fine again.”
09:33 Patricija Stalidzane: “Wow, those were my first laps in the wet with the GT3. I’ve definitely learnt to respect the car here on this track. We’ve got nothing to gain today anyway, so I drove quite relaxed just to get to know the car first. It’s all new territory for me here; I’m feeling my way slowly. I have complete faith in Max Paul – he’ll definitely go on the attack again, just like yesterday. If he gets a clear lap in the top qualifying session, there’s a lot to be had. We’ll see what we can achieve in the race and where I end up.”
#8 Veremenko / SELV (Audi R8 LMS GT3 evo II)
09:20 Selv: “This is perfectly normal Nürburgring weather for the Nordschleife: changeable conditions. In many places it’s extremely slippery, whilst in others the grip is good – naturally just wet grip or ‘intermediate grip’, but the grip is predictable. That was a good warm-up for the race. The top priority is to finish. We’ll see: if it dries out, that would be great, but the Audi is also very strong in changeable conditions. We’ve also got good tyres; we’re currently testing a new Michelin, which feels very safe. Our strategy is a steady pace – don’t make any mistakes, don’t throw the car away and just cross the finish line.”
#16 Haase / Sims / Green (Audi R8 LMS GT3 evo II)
08:44 Christopher Haase driving slowly
08:48 Haase must have gone off the track. The Audi R8 GT3 returns to the pits with damage to the left side of the car.
08:54 Christopher Haase on his spin: “We just couldn’t get the tyre to work. I can’t even say why I skidded into the tyre barrier in the first place. But it feels like driving on ice, and that sort of thing can happen. But nothing worse happened.”
#26 Christodoulou / Lulham / Grenier (Mercedes-AMG GT3)
09:47 Adam Christodoulou returns to the pits at a slow pace with a puncture.
#34 Krognes / Thiim (Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 EVO)
09:22 Nicki Thiim: “We’ve got a minor sensor issue. It’s really just a small thing that will be sorted out quickly, and then we’ll be back on track straight away.”
09:51 Takes the lead with a fastest lap of 8:18.515 mins ahead of #67 Mies / Vervisch / Scherer / Caresani (Ford Mustang GT3)
#36 Reeh / Schall / Walkenhorst / Scherer (BMW E89 Z4 (EVO 2013))
08:43 Update on the technical issues in yesterday’s race: A sensor fault on the paddle shifters caused problems, which is why we had to start the race from the pit lane.
09:41 Julian Reeh: “We’ve had some real bad luck over the last few days – and it’s nothing we can blame ourselves for, just plain bad luck. It felt like a relief to get into the car and realise that everything was working. The car drives brilliantly and is massive fun. I’d say the track is 90% dry; we can switch to slicks straight away. The wet tyres were only just working for us. Generally speaking, we’d almost completely rebuilt the car over the last few weeks; there wasn’t really a single technical component we hadn’t touched. Even the suspension was away for overhaul for four or five weeks. So it was, of course, a real shame that two of the four dampers were then straight away faulty.”
#47 Fukuzumi / Gamo / Krohn / Pittard (Mercedes-AMG GT3)
09:14 am Fukuzumi returns to the pits at a slow pace
#71 Blank / Großmann / Jöns (Audi R8 LMS GT3 evo II)
09:51 am Otto Blank: “Going out onto the track does feel a bit queasy at first. On the other hand, once you get into your rhythm, you have to push it out of your mind a bit. In the corner where it happened, you do get a very strange feeling because it’s still a bit slippery. But at some point you have to block that out, because otherwise, I think, you focus on it too much and then make mistakes. Today we want to fine-tune the car a bit more. The two co-drivers sitting in the car with me still need to get to know it a bit better. Even now in these changeable conditions. I’m driving the 24-hour race in a GT3 for the first time. I simply need endless kilometres. And that was our number one priority for me and the team.”
#77 Weerts / de Wilde (BMW M4 GT3 EVO)
09:27 Torsten Schubert, Team Principal at Schubert Motorsport: “Yesterday wasn’t great, of course, but that’s just the way the sport is. Unfortunately, things always happen that nobody wants. I think we now need to finish our race sensibly today. We have to continue with our test programme so that we can compete properly in the 24-hour race here. As far as the tyres are concerned, we’re actually quite happy that it’s wet this morning so we can try out these conditions. I think we’re heading into almost dry conditions now. That way we can try everything out again. So in terms of the test programme, it’s actually very good. This afternoon, judging by the weather forecasts, it will certainly stay dry. That means we’ll also be able to run a dry setup over the distance. We’re not too badly set up for that. I would have preferred a wetter track this morning.”
#80 Engel / Schiller / Stolz (Mercedes-AMG GT3)
08:57 currently leads the timesheets with a lap time of 9:11.191 mins.
#84 Engstler / Bortolotti / Niederhauser (Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2)
08:44 Patric Niederhauser sets the first fastest time in the Abt Lamborghini with a time of 9:36.859 mins.
#108 Beck / Schmidt (BMW 325i (e90))
08:58 was driving too fast in the pit lane and receives a 30-second time penalty after the first lap of the race.
#632 Broadbent / Brown / Charoudin / Metzger (Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (992))
09:05 Manuel Metzger: “It’s already relatively dry. I reckon another two, three, four laps, then we can switch to slicks. So certain sections of the track are already dry or have a dry racing line. Other sections are still wet, though. Especially under the trees. But the car worked well. I felt comfortable. We’re naturally always aiming for the class win in AT2; that’s our goal. Of course, we want to be the best Cup car again, or at least be in the mix with the Cup cars. We have our sister car from the Cup class on the grid today with Raphael and Noah. They’ll probably be hard to beat, but behind them we’re trying to be ‘best of the rest’.”
09:34 The race car dubbed the “Influencer Porsche” by fans is currently leading the Alternative Fuels class, a good 24 seconds ahead of the all-female Porsche. In the overall standings, it sits in 38th place, placing it in the upper midfield among the identical Cup Porsches.
#830 Basseng / Lauck / Bastian / Azcona (Hyundai Motor Company Elantra N TCR)
09:13 The Hyundai TCR is coping perfectly with the conditions and is by far the fastest front-wheel-drive car in 36th place.
#920 Metzger / Nagelsdiek / Sun Tzu (Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (992))
09:01 Raphael Rennhofer: “Unfortunately, I skidded into a tyre barrier. Luckily, the damage is only cosmetic and the steering wheel was still straight. I think the team will sort it out and we’ll be back on track shortly.”
#925 Miller / Lander / Wehrmann (Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (992))
09:13 The Huber Porsche is currently the fastest Cup Porsche on the track with a time of 9:42.639 mins.In the final minutes of qualifying for Sunday’s race at the ADAC Nürburgring 24h Qualifiers, lap times dropped once again. After the session began in the morning on a still-damp track, the surface dried out further as qualifying progressed, meaning conditions improved significantly. It was ultimately Christian Krognes who set the fastest time in the Walkenhorst Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 #34 with a lap of 8:18.515 minutes. He was 2.168 seconds faster than Alessio Picariello (BEL) in the Dunlop Porsche 911 GT3 R #17.