Dienst Tops Pre-Qualifying in Silver Cup Mercedes-AMG

Silver Cup driver Marvin Dienst posted the fastest lap of Pre-Qualifying practice for the Nürburgring 3 Hours at the wheel of the No. 7 Toksport WRT Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo.

The German driver sprung a surprise in Saturday’s second of two practice sessions with a fast lap time of 1:54.811 in the car that he shares with Paul Petit and Oscar Tunjo.

Dienst earned the top spot by a margin of 0.222 seconds from Haupt Racing Team’s Luca Solz, as Mercedes-AMGs once again finished first and second after a similar result in Free Practice earlier in the day.

The No. 4 HRT machine has now finished second in both build-up sessions held so far.

The Free Practice-leading No. 88 AKKA-ASP Mercedes-AMG lapped 14th in Pre-Qualifying with Raffaele Marciello at the helm.

Silver-rated drivers also finished third and fourth in the afternoon session as Arthur Rougier narrowly beat Jim Pla to deny a Mercedes-AMG sweep of the top three.

Rougier clocked a time of 1:55.121 in the early stages of the session to initially put the No. 114 Emil Frey Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo on top, before Tunjo and Stolz made improvements later on.

Pla ranked fourth for GetSpeed Performance, less than two-hundredths shy of his fellow Frenchman Rougier.

Maxime Martin completed the Pre-Qualifying top five and also led the Pro-Am class for Aston Martin customer outfit Oman Racing with TF Sport.

The Belgian ace produced a 1:55.227 aboard the No. 97 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 that is making its first Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup appearance of the season this weekend.

Albert Costa ended up sixth in the No. 163 Emil Frey Lamborghini, from Max Hofer and Adrien Tambay in Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evos run by Attempto Racing and Sainteloc Racing.

Hofer finished second in Silver, six-tenths behind overall pace-setter Dienst and two-tenths clear of Patrick Kujala who took third in class and ninth overall for Rinaldi Racing.

Rinaldi was the highest-placed Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 operator in Pre-Qualifying as the two factory-supported Iron Lynx cars ran down in 25th and 31st.

The top Porsche 911 GT3 R was Dinamic Motorsport’s No. 56 entry in 21st, one place ahead of the best-placed BMW M6 GT3 from Walkenhorst Motorsport.

RESULTS: Pre-Qualifying