The top qualifying session for Sunday’s race was packed with action and excitement. Sven Schnabel’s team suffered a double blow, with their race cars failing to set a timed lap: the #17 Dunlop Porsche 911 GT3 R made contact with the crash barrier during the warm-up lap. In the first flying lap, it was then the turn of their team-mates in the #44 Falken Porsche. The battle for pole position was sensational, with the #45 Ferrari from Realize Kondo Racing setting the fastest time on the first flying lap: Thierry Vermeulen completed the lap in 8:10.275 minutes, just one thousandth of a second faster than David Jahn in the Gamot Racing BMW M4 GT3 Evo #23! No other driver came close to these times, even though Christopher Haase in the Scherer Audi R8 LMS GT3 evo II #16 got within 0.965 seconds of Jahn. However, third place meant he could only start from the second row of the grid for the race – right next to the fourth-placed Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 R #911.
#3 Verstappen / Auer (Mercedes-AMG GT3)
11:12 am Lucas Auer takes fifth place on the grid, with #26 Christodoulou / Lulham / Grenier (Mercedes-AMG GT3) alongside him
11:32 am Lukas Auer: “Everything went well for us. It was very slippery around Hatzenbach. I don’t know what was there. The car feels very good. I’m not sure what to expect from the race now. It still looks a bit as though it might rain.”
#7 Stalidzane / Paul / Lefterov (Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2)
11:21 am Maximilian Paul: “The feeling was quite okay. But I had a few yellow flag periods and some slow cars that ultimately had to abort their laps. They were a nuisance, but overall we’re happy with the car.”
#16 Haase / Sims / Green (Audi R8 LMS GT3 evo II)
11:11 am Haase secures third on the grid for the Audi, pushing the #911 Preining / Campbell / Breuer (Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) Evo26) down to fourth
11:23 am Christopher Hase: “I’m relatively satisfied. We had a tough start to the day. Now the conditions were quite good for us. I did lose the front end a bit towards the end and certainly lost some time there. We went for the softs and they would have been best on the first lap, but there was a double yellow. I couldn’t do any more than that, but I’m satisfied.”
#17 Boccolacci / Picariello (Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) Evo26)
10:48 am Picariello crashed the right-hand side of the car into the crash barrier at the Kesselchen section.
10:52 am limping back to the pits with a puncture
11:04 am Alessio Picariello: “I’m just stupid. The tyres weren’t fully in the window. I tried to get them as warm as possible. I lost the car in the middle of the corner and couldn’t recover it. I didn’t hit it too hard, but it was hard enough to damage the car. That was a stupid mistake on my part. Apologies to the team. Hopefully we can fix it and have a good race.”
#23 Zsigo / Kranz / Jahn (BMW M4 GT3 EVO)
11:25 am David Jahn: “I’m just absolutely delighted. We were already in the mix yesterday and again today. I’m overwhelmed. The last time I secured pole position in a Porsche Cup was back in 2012/13. It was great fun doing it again today.”
#32 Nakayama / Gülden / Sandtler (Mercedes-AMG GT3)
11:05 am is in the Hatzenbach area next to the track
#34 Krognes / Thiim (Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 EVO)
10:40 am is allowed onto the warm-up lap, thereby opening the Top Qualifying
10:50 am Nicki Thiim returns from the formation lap and is now starting his first timed lap.
10:57 am returns from his first fast lap and sets a time of 8:19.576 mins.
#44 Heinemann / Müller / Schuring (Porsche 911 GT3R (991 II))
10:53 am Sven Müller has turned right approaching Hatzenbach and is standing next to the track.
#45 Perel / Marschall / Vermeulen / Neubauer (Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo26)
10:59 am Thierry Vermeulen takes the lead with a lap time of 8:17.275 mins. Just one thousandth of a second behind, David Jahn takes second place (8:17.276 mins)
11:11 am secured pole position for today’s four-hour race. They share the front row with #23 Zsigo / Kranz / Jahn (BMW M4 GT3 EVO)
11:18 am Thierry Vermeulen: “Many thanks to the team for such a car. We’ve managed to improve further since the last NLS race. We still had a few issues yesterday. But overnight, the team managed to make some improvements. It was great to complete a lap without any traffic.”
#62 Winkelhock / Ludwig / Asch / James (HWA Evo R)
11:29 am Luca Ludwig: “I had two good laps that made a big difference. We’ve been setting the lap times we’d calculated.”
#67 Mies / Vervisch / Scherer / Caresani (Ford Mustang GT3)
10:52 am in the pits whilst the team checks the car
10:55 am Frederik Vervisch returns to the track
#911 Preining / Campbell / Breuer (Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) Evo26)
11:28 am Thomas Breining: “It wasn’t easy, as unfortunately there was oil on the track all the time. So I went off straight away on the outlap – at the Hatzenbach entrance. It’s been a real nuisance this weekend; every few laps you end up sliding off somewhere. Basically, it was a good session; I managed a great lap at the end. That was enough for fourth place. But this weekend, I think the sporting side of things is rather secondary.”