Cold tyres to blame for Engel’s TQ2 off
The #80 Mercedes-AMG Team Ravenol AMG GT3 EVO will start this year’s race from 25th on the grid, after an accident for Maro Engel meant the car failed to complete a lap in this morning’s Top Qualifying 2.
The German went off at Hatzenbach on his first flying lap, with the car damaged sufficiently that he was unable to drive the car back to the pits.
“The tyre wasn’t fully in the temperature window yet,” Engel explained. “I was pushing to try to get the temperature in, and just got caught out by a sudden snap.”
Schumacher making the step up to Pro with HRT Ford Racing
Last year, HRT Ford Racing secured a breakthrough SP 9 Pro-Am victory on the Mustang GT3’s 24H Nürburgring, with Dennis Fetzer, Jusuf Omega, Salman Omega and David Schumacher finishing fourth overall.
For 2026, not only is Schumacher defending his Pro-Am win in the #65 Mustang, but he is also turning his focus to SP 9 Pro, aboard the Ravenol-backed #64 entry.
“I believe the entire team is really motivated,” the German said.
“We started off last year pretty strong. Obviously, there was a bit of luck involved, but in the end, we had strong pace. We kept the car in one piece until the last lap, and had a great success. We finished P4 overall, won the category, and had a potential P3 in us.”
The step up to Pro means a change of approach for Schumacher, who is making his third start at the race.
“Last year, the plan was clear, do not cause any damage, and just finish the race,” he explained.
“This was the number one goal which we had, and we achieved it without any scratches until the last corner. But this year is going to be a bit different. We want to fight for great positions overall, to maybe get a podium out of it, maybe even fight for victory, depending on how we’re going to be with our package. We will see this on Saturday afternoon, how strong we are.
“I think when you fight for the overall win nowadays, you have to go all in every single lap, and in 24 hours this brings a lot of risk with it, so we’ll see what’s going to happen.”
Joining Schumacher in the #64 Mustang GT3 Evo is three-time overall winner Frank Stippler, who claimed his latest victory as recently as 2024.
The 51-year-old veteran is a great asset for Schumacher, as well as fellow co-drivers Arjun Maini and Fabio Scherer.
“We are pretty young, except for having Frank with us, who brings all the experience with him,” explained Schumacher.
“I think we all can learn a lot from him, especially when it comes to car development. When you listen to him, how he explains every little bit of what the car is doing, it’s quite impressive to hear.
“As long as he’s still with us, we’re going to get everything we can get from him, and take it on track for ourselves.”
Maini: HRT Ford Racing’s off-season evolution “quite a positive change”
For the Mustang GT3’s second appearance at the race, the major change in the HRT Ford Racing camp is the addition of an Evo kit to the car.
“I think almost all the drivers drove the car had similar comments about where we need to improve, and Multimatic and Ford Racing took it quite seriously and came up with a good improvement,” Arjun Maini, who also races for HRT Ford Racing in the DTM and GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup, told DSC.
“Overall, we’ve had a few understeer issues last year and some entry instabilities, and we’ve fixed this. We’ve had better aero in the car, which we felt like we missed, and then a few other minor stuff, but it ends up adding lap time.”
HRT Ford Racing’s gains haven’t been limited to the car, however, with Haupt Racing Team also making steps forward now it has a season of running the Mustang under its belt.
“HRT Ford Racing have done a good job in working over the winter to see where we can improve the car in terms of what we can do, set up wise,” Maini said. “So overall, it’s been quite a positive change.”
What makes the Nürburgring stand out compared to the rest of HRT Ford Racing’s multi-series programme, is that the car runs on confidential Yokohama tyres, as opposed to the Pirelli rubber it normally runs on.
The change in tyre means that the Mustang GT3 Evo behaves slightly differently, but according to Maini, the impact on the driver is minimal.
“There’s small differences in driving style, nothing major,” he explained.
“With the close relationship we have with Yokohama, we’ve made the tyre behave the way we want it to behave, and they’ve been quite good with improving this.
“But, of course, it’s completely different when you go from a Nordschleife tyre to a normal tyre. Driving wise, in terms of over pushing, you have to be quite careful with the Pirellis, but also car set up wise, you usually go in a different direction.”
So far, these steps forward seem to be working. Both Pro-class Mustangs will start inside the top 12 having progressed to Top Qualifying 3, whilst HRT Ford Racing’s Pro-Am entry qualified on class pole.
Nürburgring auctioning off original circuit for charity
During race week, 10 pieces of original track sections are being auctioned off, in support of nine local charities. Each piece, measuring 2m x 1m, features the name of where it was taken from, and has been signed by this year’s field.
The auction can be accessed via the Nürburgring’s online shop, and closes on 21st May.
Penalties awarded following qualifying
Multiple SP 9 contenders have added themselves to the list of cars which will start the race with a penalty overhanging them.
In Qualifying 2, both the #18 Lionspeed GP Porsche and #40 W.I.S Racing Team by Koopman Racing BMW picked up 45-second stop-and-go penalties for Code 60 infringements.
The #55 Dinamic GT Porsche, meanwhile, earned a 30-second penalty for a less severe infringement.
Elsewhere, the #300 Dacia Logan will serve a five-place grid penalty due to a unsafe rejoin following an incident at Karussell in yesterday’s Qualifying 2.
Black Falcon Porsche tops Qualifying 3
Manuel Metzger was fastest in Qualifying 3, after setting a 8:37.721 aboard the #632 Black Falcon Team Fanatec Porsche 911 GT3 Cup before a band of heavy rain hit the circuit around the halfway mark of the 60-minute session.
Before the rain, times were tumbling across the lower classes, with Metzger’s the fastest by a Starting Group 2 entry across all three qualifying sessions. This means that the fan-favourite AT2 class machine will start from the front of the second grid in tomorrow’s race.
COMBINED QUALIFYING RESULT >>>
Images courtesy of Frozenspeed and Nürburgring
