A blistering second flying lap of 8:14.515, Maro Engel put the #9 Black Falcon Motorsports Mercedes AMG GT3 on pole, claiming the new James Glickenhaus Trophy awarded to the polesitter. On a drying track, which had a slow zone for a stricken Porsche, it was an astonishing showcase of commitment in a shootout session with multiple incidents; undoubtedly one of the great laps around the ‘Ring.
“That was as difficult as you can experience the Nordschleife,” Engel told DSC after qualifying. “Being on slick tyres, with a dry line in most paces but in some still damp and wet, it requires absolute maximum concentration.”
Joining Engel’s crew on the front row of the grid will be the #18 Schubert Motorsport BMW M6 after Brazilian Augusto Farfus set a 8:16.146, 1.6 seconds off the pole time. Third and fourth were the two Haribo Racing AMG GT3s with identical lineups after Max Götz (#88) and Uwe Alzen (#8) completed their laps.
“I’m extremely happy, it’s the second year we start on the front row,” said Farfus. “It was a nice qualifying, really difficult, we had a dry line but offline it was wet. It’s always good to put the car at the front.”
The first of the Audi’s ended up fifth after Frank Stippler toured the circuit in 8:19.138.
In the session there were multiple dramas, with the biggest being Kevin Estre flying backwards into the armco on the run to Bergwerk on his warm up lap, destroying the rear of the #911 Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 R, ripping off its rear wing. The sister #912 GT3 R meanwhile, could only manage 12th.
Christian Mamerow in the #16 Twin Busch Audi also went off hard before Brünnchen, damaging his suspension, the #22 ROWE Racing M6 of Nick Catsburg clouted the barriers on his second flyer and the #38 Abt Team Bentley didn’t set a time, going off at the end of the GP loop.
Of the cars that also had dramas, the reigning champ #1 WRT Audi had a puncture on its warm up lap, came in for slicks and ended up qualifying a lowly 22nd and the #75 Team Zakspeed Mercedes AMG GT3 of Luca Ludwig had a spin and ended up inches from the barriers on a flyer.
The 44th running of the Nürburgring 24 Hours begins tomorrow at 15:30 local time in Germany, live on radiolemans.com.
