Mercedes has taken back top qualifying honors from Audi in Friday morning’s Qualifying 2 at the Nürburgring, as the No. 88 Haribo Racing Team-AMG entry set the pace.
Overnight rain meant the track wasn’t fully dry when the session started, with little of note taking place until the final 40 minutes when the No. 912 Porsche 911 GT3 R became the first of 17 cars to beat Laurens Vanthoor’s time from Qualifying 1.
The times kept tumbling until the final minutes of the session, when the Haribo Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Uwe Alzen, Jan Seyffarth, Maximillian Götz and Lance David Arnold posted a time of 8:16.311.
It was almost two tenths ahead of the No. 29 HTP Mercedes shared by Christian Vietoris, Marco Seefried, Christian Hohenadel and Renger van der Zande.
Indy Dontje ensured that Mercedes enjoyed a clean sweep of the top three positions with the No. 14 Black Falcon Mercedes, ahead of the No. 6 Audi Sport Team Phoenix R8 LMS of René Rast and the best of the Porsches from the Frikadelli Racing Team.
The Top-30 Qualifying session which decides the grid for the 24 Hours itself will take place at 7:50 p.m. local time.