Free Practice
Herberth Motorsport’s Tim Heinemann was fastest in Free Practice ahead of the penultimate round of the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup at the Nürburgring.
The German set a 1:55.249 on his first flying lap of the two-hour session aboard Herberth’s #92 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992), which competes in the Gold Cup.
Jens Klingmann, piloting the Gold Cup-entered #777 AlManar Racing by WRT BMW M4 GT3 Evo, set a 1:55.297 two minutes later to slot into second position, and the top two would go unchanged for the remaining 112 minutes of running.
Best of the Pro cars, in third overall, was Maxime Martin in the #9 Boutsen VDS Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo with a 1:55.341. Martin was the quickest of those to improve towards the end of Free Practice, after the sun emerged over the 5.137-kilometre circuit following a brief spell of light rain midway through.
HRT Ford Performance began its home race weekend with a strong showing, as both of its Mustang GT3s wound up in the top five. David Schumacher led the Silver Cup with a 1:55.417 in the #65 Mustang, 0.016 seconds ahead of teammate Arjun Maini aboard the #64 Pro entry.
Sixth, and fastest in the Bronze Cup, was Daniel Harper in the #991 Paradine Competition BMW.
Marco Sørensen was seventh in the #7 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 Evo, ahead of the #12 Rinaldi Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 of David Perel and Raffaele Marciello in the #98 ROWE Racing BMW. Sørensen and Perel, notably, both set a 1:55.633, with the Dane ranked higher having set the time first.
David Pittard completed the top 10 aboard the #34 Walkenhorst Motorsport Aston Martin, ahead of the #33 Verstappen.com Racing Aston Martin of Harry King.
The drivers’ championship leading #48 Mercedes-AMG Team MANN-FILTER AMG GT3 Evo ended the session 15th in the hands of Maro Engel. This was one position ahead of their closest rivals in the standings, the #32 Team WRT BMW, who have undergone a change of chassis since Thursday’s pre-event test.
The session was interrupted by a single Full Course Yellow, after Sai Sanjay went off at Turn 6 aboard the #112 CSA Racing McLaren GT3 Evo in the closing minutes.
Ziggo Sport Tempesta has made a late change of driver for this weekend, after Christopher Froggatt was declared unfit yesterday. Lorenzo Patrese has replaced the Briton aboard the #93 Ferrari 296 GT3, which competes in the Bronze Cup.
Elsewhere, UNX Racing will run with only Mathieu Detry and Fabien Duffieux aboard its #888 Porsche, following the late withdrawal of Marta Garcia Lopez, whilst Adam Christodoulou has replaced Kazuto Kotaka aboard the #611 Nordique Racing Mercedes-AMG.
Morris Schuring has been added to Rutronik Racing’s #97 Porsche as a third driver, whilst Matisse Lismont has replaced Gustav Bergström aboard the #30 Team WRT BMW, in a move set to stick for the rest of the GT World Challenge Europe season.
Pre-Qualifying
UPDATE: Citing force majeure, the stewards have elected to waive the eight lap requirement for Pre-Qualifying. As such, the #74 Ferrari has been reinstated in fourth overall.
Ferrari works driver Antonio Fuoco was fastest in a shortened GT World Challenge Europe Pre-Qualifying at the Nürburgring, as track damage saw the hour-long session reduced to just 23 minutes.
The Italian set a 1:54.959, the fastest lap of the weekend so far, just before the 10-minute mark aboard his #50 AF Corse – Francorchamps Motors Ferrari 296 GT3.
Second, 0.149 seconds behind, was Augusto Farfus in the #98 ROWE Racing BMW M4 GT3 Evo, ahead of the #48 Mercedes-AMG Team MANN-FILTER AMG GT3 Evo of Lucas Auer.
Al Faisal Al Zubair led the Gold Cup in fourth overall aboard the #777 AlManar Racing by WRT BMW, with Laurin Heinrich fifth in the #22 Schumacher CLRT Porsche 911 GT3 R (992).
Thomas Preining was sixth in the #911 Pure Rxcing Porsche, ahead of Kobe Pauwels in the Silver Cup-topping #21 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 Evo and the #63 GRT – Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2 of Mirko Bortolotti.
Best of the Bronze Cup runners, in 13th overall, was the #25 Sainteloc Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II of Gilles Magnus.
Magnus, however, was not the fastest driver in the Bronze Cup. That honour fell to Dennis Marschall in the #74 Kessel Racing Ferrari with a 1:55.160. The #74 Ferrari was initially fourth overall, but was one of 21 cars to be relegated to the bottom of the timesheets after failing to complete its required eight laps.
This was due to the session being abruptly stopped before the halfway mark, following damage to the Turn 15 exit kerb. After a delay of over 15 minutes, with repairs not yet complete and the timetable already running behind schedule, the call was made not to resume Pre-Qualifying.
Qualifying at the Nürburgring takes place at 09:00 CEST tomorrow, with the three-hour race starting at 15:00 CEST.
Images courtesy of SRO/JEP
