GetSpeed Mercedes Holds On for Saturday N24 Qualifiers Win

Photo: Mercedes-AMG

Adam Christodoulou and Dani Juncadella held on to claim victory in Saturday’s Nürburgring 24 Qualifiers race despite having served a 30-second penalty.

Christodoulou drove the No. 2 Team GetSpeed Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo to a 1.173 second victory over the No. 911 Manthey EMA Porsche 911 GT3 R of Fred Makowiecki in the wet-turned-dry race that ended in full darkness around the Nordschliefe.

Having started on pole, Juncadella bridged out to a sizable lead over the No. 911 Manthey EMA Porsche of Michael Christensen in full wet conditions but was deemed to have jumped the start, with the car handed a penalty with 45 minutes to go.

It reduced the gap to less than six seconds, although the Englishman managed to expand his margin to the No. 24 Lionspeed by Car Collection Porsche of Mathieu Jaminet in the closing laps of the two-hour contest until tightening back up on the final lap.

Jaminet, who shared his car with Patrick Kolb, lost second to Makowiecki’s ‘Grello’ Porsche in the closing stages of the two-hour contest.

A last lap overtake by Martin Tomczyk on Earl Bamber, meanwhile, gave the No. 40 Team Scherer PHX Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II fourth at the line, despite having started from pit lane in the hands of Mike Rockenfeller.

Bamber and co-driver David Pittard came home fifth in the No. 30 Frikadelli Racing Team Ferrari 296 GT3.

Falken Motorsports’ No. 33 Porsche was sixth, followed by the BMW Junior Team entry, featuring Connor De Phillippi and Erik Johansson this weekend.

The highest-place debuting Mercedes-AMG GT2, the No. 46 Team HRT entry of Frank Bird and Elia Erhart, finished 27th overall while the No. 222 Team Schnitzelalm entry, featuring Mikael Grenier, spent time in the garage with a broken engine belt.

Sunday’s four-hour Qualifiers race gets underway at 1 p.m. local time (7 a.m. ET).

RESULTS: Race 1

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John