Nürburgring Friday Notebook

***Kevin Estre secured a second career pole position at the Nürburgring 24 on Friday. His previous pole dates back to 2014, when he drove a Doerr Motorsport McLaren MP4-12C GT3. “Good to be [back],” Estre said. “I didn’t beat my time. Back in the days we had a bit more power and I think the track today was not as fast. But yeah, great to have achieved that.”

***Estre revealed he sought out Porsche Hypercar squadmate Laurens Vanthoor immediately after the first attempt at Top Qualifying, which was stopped when the Belgian crashed heavily at Schwedenkreuz. “First, I checked on Laurens,” he said. “I went to see the team, then when I knew where he was I went to see him. We had a moment there together, speaking about it and trying to see how he feels.”

***In a post on social media, Vanthoor described his crash aboard the No. 16 Scherer Sport PHX Porsche as ‘probably the biggest one of his career,’ writing: “I‘m very grateful to have walked away from this one. I‘m not going to tell the perfect Instagram life story, the reality is that it is tough. It hurts both on the body and in the head to experience these things. But without a doubt I will overcome this setback.”

***By going quickest in Top Qualifying, Estre ended a seven-year pole position drought for Porsche at the N24. Notably, it was Vanthoor that claimed the brand’s last pole with Manthey Racing in 2018.

***The No. 911 Manthey EMA Porsche will seek to end an unenviable statistic for polesitters at the N24: the race hasn’t been won from pole position since Marc Lieb, Romain Dumas, Timo Bernhard and Marcel Tiemann did so for Manthey in 2008.

***The length of the Top Qualifying session was reduced from two laps to one when it was rescheduled in the wake of Vanthoor’s crash. However, Estre reckoned running a second lap as originally planned would have made little difference on the results due to the high track temperature.

***Estre said: “It would have been slower for sure. Rarely with a Porsche you improve in the second lap anyway, because we use the tire quite hard normally and for us under this temperature, for sure no way and I don’t believe the others would have improved.”

***Thomas Neubauer was happy about grabbing second in the No. 45 Realize Kondo Racing with Rinaldi Ferrari 296 GT3, which was the Prancing Horse’s best N24 qualifying result since Luca Ludwig grabbed a shock pole for Octane 126 in 2022.

***Neubauer said: “You never do a perfect lap, but if a few months ago you would have said to me that I would take second in Top Qualifying, I would take it any day. Especially behind Kevin, who is a legend around here.”

***The No. 27 Red Bull Team ABT Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 has been moved to the back of the first starting group for Mirko Bortolotti’s red flag infringement during the aborted first Top Qualifying session. Additionally, a suspended penalty stripping Bortolotti of his Nordschleife permit is in place until the end of the meeting on Sunday.

***The stewards’ decision outlines that Bortolotti “was not prepared to manage the red flag situation during a long distance (overspeeding) until he recognized the red flag situation by reaching an already slower car.” Onboards appear to show the No. 27 Lamborghini passing multiple red flags and LED boards before overtaking the No. 30 Walkenhorst Motorsport Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo of Stefan Aust. The document went on to state that the “driver could not be informed in time by the team about the red flag” and that “no dangerous situation was determined by intensive control of the available videos.”

***Bortolotti accepted responsibility for the penalty, describing it as “a tough pill to swallow,” explaining that he was caught out by the red flag as it was ‘the last thing he expected to happen’ during the shootout.

***The Italian told Sportscar365: “I made a mistake and I definitely want to apologize for that. I realized and reacted to the red flag too late but I didn’t put anyone in danger. It’s a tough pill to swallow. It’s not an excuse but until that point we were on our way to a potential pole, so obviously I was fully in the zone. All I can say is sorry to my team, my teammates and the marshals. I respect all decisions and I’m the first guy that says mea culpa when I make a mistake. Now we focus on the race.”

***Both the No. 35 Walkenhorst Aston Martin and No. 65 Ford Mustang GT3 were thrown out of Top Qualifying for minimum ride height infractions, having initially qualified eighth and 11th, respectively. For the Ford, the disqualification came on top of an earlier three-place grid drop for not having wheels on the car at the three-minute signal prior to the start of the session, a penalty that was also given to the No. 48 Black Falcon Team EAE Porsche.

***Michelin, the dominant tire provider in the SP9 category, has brought three different compounds to the N24 this year, which have been categorized as Cold, Medium and Hot.

***Opinion appears to be split on how much the Cold compound, the softest of the three, will be used during the race considering the high ambient and track temperatures that have been predicted. Scherer Sport PHX boss Ron Moser indicated that the tire is likely come into play during the nighttime hours on the team’s sole remaining car, the No. 1 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II.

***In contrast, Mercedes-AMG head of customer racing Stefan Wendl effectively ruled out the use of the softest tire for its two factory-backed Mercedes-AMG Team GetSpeed cars.

***Wendl told Sportscar365: “We like the Medium tire very much and compared to other brands we’ve been able to run a Medium tire to very low temperatures. This lets us optimize the medium tire more than we’re dealing with different compounds on the same car.”

***Scherer Sport PHX moved its No. 1 Audi from Yokohama to Michelin tires after the N24 Qualifiers, having previously run the NLS rounds on tires from the Japanese brand. When asked, Moser indicated the switch was “planned from the beginning,” saying: “We had a partnership with Yokohama for development until the Qualifiers and then we decided for this race for Michelin.”

***Jens Klingmann says BMW is aiming to give the debuting M2 Racing the ‘Nordschleife stamp of approval’ as he shares the car with Ugo de Wilde, Charles Weerts and journalist Michael Brautigam for one of the final key parts of the new-for-2026 car’s development.

***Klingmann told Sportscar365: “If we end up winning the [SP3T] class we’re all super happy, because it’s another highlight but we want to survive. We want to use it as a test race, collect the mileage, collect the data. But to be honest, there’s not so much development happening anymore. It’s just to approve what we already know and if obviously something pops up, I hope we’re able to react on short notice.”

***Saturday’s track schedule will feature two support races prior to the 53rd running of the N24 kicking off at 4 p.m. CEST. Notably, a few drivers are pulling double duty across several races. Patrick Assenheimer, one of the drivers in the No. 63 Ford, is also driving a Mercedes 190E in the 24H Classic alongside two-time N24 winner Bernd Schneider.

***Meanwhile, Volker Strycek, who is entered into the No. 59 Doerr Motorsport McLaren Artura Trophy Evo, is also one of eight former DTM drivers to be competing in the Tourenwagen Legenden series this weekend. Strycek is joined by Christian Danner, Klaus Ludwig, Harald Grohs, Armin Hahne, Patrick Huisman, Stefan Muecke and Marc Hessel.

***The 53rd running of the Nürburgring will also be preceded by a 40-minute warmup session at 12 p.m. CEST (6 a.m. EDT), with the race set to get underway at 4 p.m. (10 a.m. EDT).