Olsen Fastest in Final Qualifying Practice

Dennis Olsen set the fastest time for HRT Ford Performance in the third and final qualifying practice session ahead of the 53rd running of the Nürburgring 24.

The Norwegian steered the No. 64 Ford Mustang GT3 to a best lap of 8:15.043 to lead the delayed and truncated 65-minute session on Friday afternoon.

The session kicked off 25 minutes later than planned and was shorter than the originally scheduled length of 90 minutes.

This came as a result of a schedule change after barrier repairs were needed following Laurens Vanthoor’s crash during Top Qualifying earlier in the day.

Once the third qualifying session did start, it saw relatively little running in the SP9 category as all 16 cars that had taken part in Top Qualifying opted to not go out.

Instead, this opened up the opportunity for the cars outside the top positions to have a final attempt to gain a better starting position for the race.

Olsen was the fastest to improve, although his effort still fell short of the No. 37 PROsport Aston Martin Vantage GT3’s Qualifying 2 time by 0.443 seconds.

Maximilian Paul also recorded an improvement in the No. 7 Konrad Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo, posting an 8:16.514.

This allowed the German to jump ahead of the No. 84 Eastalent Racing Team Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II and the No. 98 ROWE Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO on the starting grid, slotting in behind the No. 64 Ford in the process.

With all official on-track sessions completed, the 40-minute warmup session on Saturday at 12 p.m. CEST (6 a.m. CEST) will be the final opportunity for teams to go out on track before the 53rd running of the N24 kicks off at 4 p.m. CEST (10 a.m. EST).