HTP Motorsport’s Maximilian Götz clinched pole position for tomorrow’s Blancpain 1000 at the Nürburgring. In Qualifying 2 the German driver set the fastest lap of the day.
Championship leaders Kessel Racing returned to action after its accident in free practice, but the Swiss team was unable to fight for pole position in any of the sessions.
Nissan GT Academy Team RJN’s Wolfgang Reip set the fastest time with just under eight minutes remaining, but the Belgian driver was pushed down by Bernd Schneider. The experienced German in the HTP Motorsport Mercedes went a second quicker than any of his rivals and only Bas Leinders managed to close down the gap to three tenths on his last attempt.
In Qualifying 2 the second Nissan GT Academy Team RJN Nissans was fast out of the box with Alex Buncombe fastest with 10 minutes to go. Matteo Bobbi, Stephane Ortelli and Christopher Mies soon passed Buncombe, but again it was HTP Motorsport going even quicker as Maximilian Götz stopped the clocks after 1 minute 54.852 seconds. The other title contenders were unable to match Götz’ time and ended the session in third (Buurman), fourth (Rast) and tenth (Ramos).
Maximilian Buhk was unable to repeat what his teammates did and only managed 35th in qualifying 3, having to avoid spinning cars and to handle a very dirty circuit. Eventually it was Alessandro Pier Guidi who was fastest in the third and final qualifying session, his fastest time was half a second slower than the time set by Götz though, but it was enough to secure a front row start for tomorrow.
Overall pole sitter Maximilian Götz: “Not even a good condition on track. There are over 50 cars on track so to get a good lap requires a lot of luck.“It was planned that Max (Buhk) would set our fastest lap but the track was so dirty by the time he was in the car, I had to go quickest in the end.”
Kirill Ladygin was third fastest in Qualifying 3, setting the pole time in Pro-Am Cup. Nissan GT Academy Team RJN will start from second on the grid, championship leader Lucas Ordonez and second placed Peter Pyzera will start from tenth in class, the AF Corse Ferrari will start from 12th.
Pro-Am pole sitter Kirill Ladygin: “Qualifying was really difficult. It’s a really good feeling for me and the whole team, and after Spa we have gained a lot of experience.”
MtC
