Top Qualifying 3 Pole Shootout Contenders Set

Photo: Gruppe C Photography/SRO

The 12 cars that will take part in this afternoon’s Top Qualifying 3 pole shootout for the Nürburgring 24 has been set following a dramatic Top Qualifying 2 session that saw Maro Engel have a brush with the barriers and be eliminated from his car having a chance of overall pole.

Engel, in Thursday’s pace-setting No. 80 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, made contact the armco at Hatzenbach in the early stages of Top Qualifying 2, which led to a Code 60 for the majority of the session.

While it initially appeared only the times from the cars that had been ahead of Engel on track would be good enough to make the top-seven, the local neutralization was lifted with less than four minutes to go in the 30-minute session.

It led to a rapid single-lap shootout that was topped by Nick Yelloly in the No. 130 Red Bull Team ABT Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2, thanks to a flying 8:10.485 lap time.

Yelloly was just 0.139 seconds quicker than the No. 34 Walkenhorst Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo of Christian Krognes, while Ayhancan Guven also made a last-lap improvement to third in the No. 911 Manthey Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo.

Arjun Maini and Dennis Olsen put both of the SP9 Pro class HRT Ford Mustang GT3 EVOs into the pole shootout, ahead of Max Verstappen, who was initially quickest before the late improvements.

Verstappen’s car will still be in the shootout, however, thanks to the Dutchman improving to a 8:11.614 lap time over his 8:14.459 that was set before the Code 60 was removed.

The No. 7 Konrad Motorsport Lamborghini of Christian Engelhardt was the seventh and final car to have made it in, thanks to a 8:11.937 lap.

These cars have joined the five pre-qualified entries that were earned through NLS races and the N24 Qualifier Race 2 and did not take part in Top Qualifying 2 as a result.

They are the No. 45 Realize Kondo Racing with Rinaldi Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo, No. 16 Scherer Sport PHX Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II, No. 47 KCMG Mercedes-AMG, No. 1 ROWE Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO and No. 84 Red Bull Team ABT Lamborghini.

The first car to miss out was Adam Christodoulou in the No. 26 PROsport Racing Mercedes-AMG, ahead of the Pro-Am class HRT Mustang of David Schumacher, whose cars will start 13th and 14th on the grid, respectively.

Of note, the SP-X class BMW M3 Touring 24H is set to roll off from 22nd on the grid.

It was only one of two non-SP9 class cars to advance to Top Qualifying 2, the other being the alternative-fueled AT1 class No. 75 Max Kruse Racing Audi, which will start 16th.

The No. 80 Winward Mercedes-AMG, meanwhile, will start 25th after not setting a lap time at all in the session.

The No. 71 Juta Racing Audi was the first to miss out on Top Qualifying 2, with Christer Jons setting the 23rd quickest time, when counting two cars that were already pre-qualified for the pole shootout.

Julien Andlauer in the No. 17 Dunlop Motorsport Porsche and Loek Hartog’s No. 55 Dinamic GT Porsche were also eliminated in the opening session, and are due to start 27th and 28th, overall on Saturday.

Top Qualifying 1 notably saw three-time and defending winner Kelvin van der Linde spin at Brünnchen and briefly get stuck in the wet grass before returning to pit lane and later to the garage.

The No. 33 KKramer Racing UG & Co KG Audi of Michele Di Martino crashed out early in the session at the Veedol-Schikane.

Top Qualifying 3 is set to get underway at at 1:35 p.m. CEST (7:35 a.m. EST).

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John