Juncadella Fastest in N24 Warmup

Daniel Juncadella set the fastest time in the warmup session ahead of the Nürburgring 24, which went by largely trouble-free except for a slow puncture for the No. 33 Falken Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R.

Juncadella, piloting the No. 27 Red Bull Team ABT Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2, was at the head of a flurry of late improvements in the closing stages of the 40-minute session.

The Spaniard reeled off an 8:16.398, outpacing Maro Engel’s No. 14 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo by 1.027 seconds.

Juncadella had a scary moment earlier in the session when he overshot the Caracciola Karussel on a previous lap, narrowly avoiding contact with the guardrail before continuing.

Jesse Krohn also improved and jumped up to third in the No. 98 ROWE Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO, dropping Dirk Mueller’s No. 63 Ford Mustang GT3 to fourth in the process.

Ayhancan Guven was fifth in the polesitting No. 911 Manthey EMA Porsche 911 GT3 R, ahead of Dennis Olsen’s No. 64 Ford and the No. 8 JUTA Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II driven by Pierre Kaffer.

Joel Sturm slotted into eighth in the No. 54 Dinamic GT Porsche, with Max Hofer and Jannes Fittje completing the top ten for Eastalent Racing Team and SR Motorsport by Schnitzelalm, respectively.

While the session went by without any major issues, Sven Mueller stopped the No. 33 Falken Motorsports Porsche at the exit of Adenauer Forst with what has since been confirmed to be a slow puncture.

The 53rd running of the Nürburgring 24 kicks off at with the race set to get underway at 4 p.m. (10 a.m. EDT).