Land Audi On Top in N24 Free Practice

Audi got out of the blocks fastest in Free Practice for the Nürburgring 24 Hours, with Kelvin van der Linde setting the fastest time in the No. 29 Audi Sport Team Land R8 LMS.

The session was delayed by almost half an hour to recover broken-down cars from 24h-Classic qualifying, before running eventually got underway in hot and sunny conditions.

Audi continued its chart-topping form from the Qualifying Race in April, with South African van der Linde’s time of 8:19.086 just over six seconds quicker than the No. 10 Audi Sport Team WRT Audi driven by Nico Mueller.

Joerg Bergmeister’s No. 44 Falken Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R the best of the rest in third.

Rene Rast made it three Audis in the top four positions in the No. 9 WRT machine, with the No. 42 Schnitzer BMW completing the top five, 8.4 seconds behind van der Linde.

Defending winner Mercedes-AMG Team Black Falcon did not complete a qualifying simulation and set the 39^th fastest time.

The first qualifying session begins at 8:05 p.m. local time this evening.