BMW topped the timesheets in first qualifying for the Nürburgring 24 Hours Thursday evening as Augusto Farfus clocked the fastest time in the No. 43 BMW Team Schnitzer M6 GT3.
The Brazilian set a 8:22.307 in the closing minutes of the session, almost a full second quicker than the second-placed No. 38 Bentley Team Abt Continental GT3 driven by Christian Mamerow, which had held the top spot for much of the session.
However, the time was still three seconds slower than Kelvin van der Linde’s benchmark from Free Practice earlier in the afternoon.
Farfus also set a time good enough for third quickest in the No. 42 Schnitzer BMW, 1.5 seconds off his best in the sister car, ahead of van der Linde’s No. 29 Audi Sport Team Land R8 LMS in fourth.
Six different manufacturers were represented in the top 10, with Daniel Keilwitz fifth in the Wochenspielgel Team Monachau Ferrari 488 and Manuel Metzger sixth in the best of the Mercedes-AMG contingent for AMG Team Black Falcon.
The fastest Porsche was the No. 12 Manthey Racing 911 GT3 R shared by Robert Renauer, Matteo Cairoli, Mathieu Jaminet and Otto Klohs in eighth position.
Qualifying 2 and the Top-30 Qualifying sessions get underway at 9:30 a.m. and 7:50 p.m. local time, respectively.