Robert Seiwert
Head of Motorsport
Robert was already writing for sports media before his time at MSM. He has been reporting on DTM, Daytona, Le Mans and other events directly from the racetrack since 2011.MORE
The teams are aiming for the top qualifying round for the 24h Nürburgring 2024: In the 3rd qualifying session on the dry Friday afternoon, the lap times tumbled on the most famous race track in the world – and in the end the previously so fast #72 RMG-BMW (Harper/Hesse/Weerts) was once again at the top of the time list.
BMW works driver Max Hesse burned a time of 8:13.518 into the asphalt in the 75-minute session, by far the best lap since the first qualifying session on Thursday afternoon. In the final phase of Q3, the light blue #706 Glickenhaus (Mutsch/Mailleux/Arnold/Ledogar) stormed into second position, somewhat surprisingly.
Glickenhaus not in top qualifying after P2
Racing veteran Franck Maillleux needed 8:15.051 minutes in the fan favorite for his best lap on the traditional 25-kilometer-long track. The Frenchman was 2.533 seconds behind Hesse’s top time. But the Glickenhaus prototype registered in the SPX class will not take part in today’s top qualifying (5:30 p.m. – 7:15 p.m.). According to racing team owner Jim Glickenhaus, the US team has announced an engine change and has withdrawn from the session.
Glickenhaus: “We didn’t like the original engine for the race. That’s why we sent it to the engine builder in Turin. They rebuilt it and it’s coming back now. If we were to do the top qualifying, the guys would have to work all night and would then be too tired. That’s why we’re changing the engine now.”
Glickenhaus driver Mailleux relegated the #16 Scherer Audi (Stippler/Mies/Feller/Marschall), which had been leading the classification for a time, to third place. DTM driver Ricardo Feller set the best time (8:16.634 minutes) of the Audi quartet. “The car feels very good,” said the Swiss Feller. “That was no surprise, the guys are doing such a great job. We’re doing really well in terms of the dampers and kerb riding.”
Daniel Juncadella crashes late in the HRT Mercedes
The third qualifying session was without any major incidents, with the exception of a late Cup Porsche accident and Daniel Juncadella in the #4 HRT Mercedes crashing into the Nordschleife. There had been significantly more crashes in the previous qualifying sessions. Shortly before the accidents, Fabian Schiller took over fourth position in the #130 GetSpeed Mercedes (Engel/Gounon/Schiller/Christodoulou).
The local hero #911 Manthey-Porsche (L. Vanthoor/Preining/Estre/Güven) followed in fifth place. “Everything is going according to plan,” said the reigning DTM champion Thomas Preining before his second 24-hour Nürburgring race in the yellow-green 911. “The atmosphere around the Grello is great and I’m looking forward to hopefully a full 24 hours.” The last of the seven Manthey victories at the Eifel classic dates back to 2021.
Positions six, seven and eight in the combined qualifying were completed by the #15 Scherer-Audi (Vervisch/Haase/Winkelhock/Feller), the #99 Rowe-BMW (Frijns/S. van der Linde/D. Vanthoor/Farfus) and the #7 Konrad-Lamborghini (Soufi/Kratz/Paul/Caresani).
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