Vanthoor Takes N24 Pole in Porsche Sweep

Photo: 24H-Media

Laurens Vanthoor has stormed to the overall pole for the Nürburgring 24, leading a Porsche 1-2-3 sweep in Top 30 Qualifying.

The Belgian reeled off a 8:09.105 time in his second of two flying laps in the No. 911 Manthey Racing entry to bump fellow factory driver Sven Mueller, in the No. 44 Falken Motorsports Porsche, from the top spot by 0.417 seconds.

It came after an incident-filled opening qualifying lap for Vanthoor, who slid off course after jumping over a curb, before rejoining with virtually no damage.

Norbert Siedler qualified the No. 31 Frikadelli Racing Team Porsche in third, in a dominant run for the German manufacturer.

The trio of Porsches, along with the No. 4 Black Flacon Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Maro Engel, was best of the rest, with the top-four all breaking the previous qualifying record since the introduction of the shootout-style qualifying format.

Vanthoor will share driving duties with Kevin Estre,  Romain Dumas and Earl Bamber in the race.

Aston Martin Racing’s Nicki Thiim was fifth with a 8:10.020 in the No. 007 Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3, followed by another Porsche, the No. 912 Manthey entry of Fred Makowiecki, in sixth.

Mercedes, meanwhile, took positions seven through nine, with the No. 99 ROWE Racing BMW M6 GT3 of Jesse Krohn the quickest of the BMWs in 10th.

Audi, as expected struggled in qualifying, with defending race winner Christopher Mies the quickest of the Audi R8 LMS, qualifying a distant 15th and more than three seconds slower than Vanthoor’s pole-winning time.

The Nürburgring 24 gets underway Saturday at 3:30 p.m. local time (9:30 a.m. ET).

RESULTS: Qualifying (Combined)

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