Falken Motorsports has won Race 1, twice for Porsche

The first qualifying race for the 2024 24 Hours of Nürburgring saw the clear dominance of the Porsche 911 GT3 R on the Nordschleife and a one-two finish for the German manufacturer.

After four hours of racing, Tim Heinemann and Sven Müller won on the wheel of the No. 44 Falken Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R, almost a minute ahead of the No. The 911 “Grello” Porsche of the Manthey team led by Ayhancan Guven and Thomas Preining.

“At the beginning of the day, I had a little trouble keeping up with the pace of the Audis. But then things went well for us, said Falken driver Sven Müller, summarizing the weekend’s opening race. The balance of the 911 was perfect and the tires were excellent. The strategy on the field was also good: it’s a good start to the season! Tomorrow we will modify the driver pairs a bit and we want to continue working on the settings for 24 hours. »

Starting from the top position, No. 15 Scherer Sport PHX Audi R8 LMS GT3 of Frank Stippler, Christopher Mies and Ricardo Feller took the third step of the podium after dominating the start of the race, ahead of the sister car, Audi n. °16 by Christopher Haase, Frédéric Vervisch and Dennis Marschall.

After crossing the checkered flag in second place, the second Falken Motorsports car of Julien Andlauer and Klaus Bachler eventually finished fifth after receiving a 32-second penalty late in the race for overtaking them under the yellow flag.

Winning the 2023 edition of the 24 Hours of the Nürburgring, Frikadelli Racing’s 1 Ferrari 296 GT3 finished sixth with Luca Ludwig, Daniel Keilwitz, Felipe Fernandez Laser and Nico Varrone at the wheel, ahead of the No. 130 Mercedes AMG. Mercedes-AMG Getspeed Team GT3 driven by Maro Engel, Adam Christodoulou and Jules Gounon.

See you tomorrow morning at 8:15 for Race 2 qualifying, followed by Qualifying at 10:40 and Race 2 at 1pm.