Jaminet Fastest In Third Session; ROWE Keeps Top Spot

Mathieu Jaminet set the quickest time in the third Nürburging 24 Hours session, although ROWE Racing remained at the top of the combined standings.

The Frenchman was fastest on Friday afternoon behind the wheel of theNo. 27 Toksport WRT Porsche 911 GT3 R, setting an 8:15.967. 

It was also enough to vault the car up to third place in the overall standings, now 1.196 seconds down from the No. 98 ROWE Racing BMW M4 GT3 which leads the combined standings.

The third session got underway with two separate incidents for high-profile SP9-class runners.

Maro Engel survived an early-session scare, as the No. 4 Team GetSpeed Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo made contact with Huber Motorsport’s No. 70 Porsche 991 GT3 Cup, with the Porsche going into the barriers at Flugplatz mere minutes after the session got underway.

Moments earlier David Pittard had spun the No. 90 TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage GT3 into the barrier at Hatzenbach, although the Briton was able to continue with light damage.

Engel had intially topped the one-hour session in Friday afternoon to go second overall but has since been classified as 22nd on the combined standings.

The No. 4 Mercedes had its fastest qualifying deleted as the result of a penalty served for a pitlane speed limit infringement on Thursday night.

Luca Stolz set a late fast lap of 8:16.253 in the No. 12 Mercedes to go second, with Falken Motorsport’s Alessio Picariello third.

The No. 5 Scherer Sport Team Phoenix Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II made its way into the combined top ten thanks to a lap of 8:16.418 by Ricardo Feller, who led the Konrad Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo driven by Jordan Pepper.

Notably, Tim Heinemann was sixth in the No.1 116 True Racing KTM X-Bow GT2, with the GT-X class car leaping up to ninth overall with a best lap of 8:16.852.

Christopher Haase was seventh for Audi Sport Team Car Collection, leading Laurens Vanthoor’s No. 1 Manthey Racing Porsche.

The top ten was completed by the No. 6 Team Bilstein Mercedes of Nico Bastian and Luca Ludwig’s No. 26 octane126 Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020.

Porsches Get Weight Break for Qualifying

An update to the SP9 class Balance of Performance was communicated during Friday’s qualifying practice, with the Porsche 911 GT3 Rs receiving a 10 kg weight reduction.

The change brings the Porsche contingent down to 1300 kg. It marks the second weight reduction of the same amount in SP9, after the Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo IIs received a 10 kg break in a BoP update between the N24 Qualifiers and this weekend.

Furthermore, the Audis have been granted an additional 6 hp in the latest round of adjustments.

The new BoP table was communicated at 2:37 p.m. local time, almost 20 minutes into the session.

It is understood that the changes will come into effect after practice, in time for Top Qualifying this evening.

The first Top Qualifying session is due to start at 5:50 p.m. CEST (11:50 a.m. ET).

RESULTS: Qualifying practice (combined)