Defending N24 winner Scherer Sport PHX’s #1 Audi R8 LMS GT3 evo II topped the times during Qualifying 1 this afternoon, the first competitive track session for the Nürburgring 24 Hours field.
Christopher Haase set the best lap, a 8:14.162 on his first flying lap with just over 90 minutes left in the run. His lap ended up being 4.7 seconds faster than everyone else in the field.
The #1 Audi (along with the Scherer’s #16 Porsche) is pushing to secure a place in top Qualifying via laps in the early sessions. There are five spots still available and 15 cars pushing to make the cut.
The #1 is having to requalify after switching tyre supplier from Yokohama to Michelin, while the team’s new #16 Porsche also lost its shootout spot ahead of this week due to the car running an unapproved engine map in the Qualifiers weekend.
The #16 ended up 12th in the times with an 8:22.109 best lap, before suffering a mechanical issue early on in the session which forced Patric Niederhauser to limp back to the pits from the Grand Prix loop after just a single hot lap.
Second in the times was the #48 Black Falken Porsche, which was the only other car to set a sub 8:1 lap at this early stage.
Raffaele Marciello ended up third in the #98 ROWE Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO. The #54 Pirelli-shod Dinamic GT Porsche was fastest early thanks to an 8:19.337 flyer from Bastian Buus, but would eventually slip to fourth.
The #33 Falken Porsche completed the top five with an 8:19.801.
There were a handful of notable incidents in the session.
The #97 SP7-entered Saugmotoren Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 Cup 997 car suffered a fire on its left rear, the #396 Adrenalin Motorsport Porsche Cayman stopped at Brunchen with an hour and 24 minutes on the clock and two SP9 GT3s ground to a halt simultaneously at different spots on the circuit.
The #50 equipe vitesse Audi R8 LMS GT3 evo II stopped on the GP loop as Jusuf Owega was seen off track at Schwedenkreuz in the #65 HRT Ford Mustang.
Then with just 12 minutes to go the #160 Toyota had an off at the end of Hatzenbach into the tyres nose first and the Hankook-liveried #55 Porsche was spotted by TV cameras crawling on the Nordschleife on its back to the pits with its hazards on and a left-rear puncture.
Qualifying 2 is set to get underway at 20:00 local time.
Image courtesy of Frozenspeed
