+ Juncadella and Mercedes-AMG best of IGTC’s entries in fourth
+ Result: Top Qualifying 3
Luca Engstler pipped his ABT team-mate Marco Mapelli to lead a Lamborghini front row lock out at this weekend’s ADAC Ravenol 24h Nürburgring.
This is likely to be the Huracan’s last hurrah with factory backing at the Nordschleife where its manufacturer has yet to taste victory. Friday’s performance suggests, however, that neither of ABT’s entries or the Konrad example that starts sixth can be discounted.
Christopher Haase (Scherer Sport PHX Audi) set up the tantalising prospect of starting the race alongside his NLS sparring partner Max Verstappen by beating Winward’s Mercedes-AMG and Dani Juncadella to third, while Thomas Neubauer underscored the potential of Kondo/Rinaldi’s Ferrari by lapping 1.1s shy of the pace-setting Lamborghini. Maximilian Paul rounded out the top six.
Pre-event attention naturally centred on a certain four-time F1 world champion, but it was another Red Bull-backed GT3 that stole the show in qualifying thanks to Engstler who goes in search of his second 24-hour win within 12 months tomorrow.
The German began his second timed lap in fifth place as well as three seconds down on Mapelli whose initial 8m11.668s effort gave ABT’s other Huracan a handy 1.7s advantage over Paul at the end of the first runs. That became eighth as others improved next time around before Engstler strung together nine strong sectors – albeit none of them fastest of all – to leap ahead of his team-mate by half-a-second with a 8m11.123s.
Mapelli was going faster behind but ultimately fell short by three tenths after making a slight improvement on his previous PB, while Haase jumped from eighth to third by lapping just 0.021s faster than Juncadella who sealed the unofficial Intercontinental GT Challenge pole for Mercedes-AMG in fourth.
Two of HRT’s Fords made it through to Top Qualifying 3 where Frank Stippler again emphasised his enduring class at the Nordschleife by setting seventh fastest time. The #64 Mustang will share row four with Manthey’s fan favourite ‘Grello’ Porsche driven by Thomas Preining who beat Raffaele Marciello (ROWE Racing BMW) and David Pittard (KCMG Mercedes-AMG) to eighth.
Just 12 of the record 41 SP9 (GT3) entries progressed to TQ3 where all five of IGTC’s registered manufacturers were represented. However, there was considerable shock in Top Qualifying 2 when Maro Engel’s accident prevented Winward’s other factory Mercedes-AMG from progressing, while just one of Porsche’s 13 911 GT3 Rs was represented in the final pole shootout.
Race day begins with warm-up at 10:00 (GMT +2) before Round 2 of this year’s Intercontinental GT Challenge goes green (hell) at 15:00. Both are live on SRO’s GT World YouTube channel (geo restrictions may apply subject to region).