Qualifiers 24 – Falken doubles Porsche in race 1 (Update)

The Audi R8 LMS GT3 – Scherer Sport PHX may have dominated qualifying and proved a strong contender this Saturday on the Nordschleife, but the Porsche 911 GT3 R was overall the fastest in race 1 of the 2024 Nürburgring 24 Hours Qualifiers.

Already the winner of the first NLS race a few days ago, the Falken Motorsports team confirmed its performance today with the victory of the number 44 of Tim Heinemann and Sven Müller, shared by Nico Menzel and Martin Ragginger.

The crews were quickly battling the Audi R8 LMS GT3s n°16 and n°15 – Scherer Sport PHX, at the pace at the start of the race, before gradually taking advantage before the final hour started and arrived at night. .

Sven Müller and Tim Heinemann finally finished 52″ ahead of the sister car number 33 where we find this weekend Klaus Bachler, Julien Andlauer, Sven Müller and Alessio Picariello. Bachler, associated this Saturday with Andlauer, took second place to Ayhançan Güven. (Porsche n°911 – Manthey EMA) on the long straight of Döttinger Höhe on the last lap and got Falken twice.

The duo Ayhançan Güven – Thomas Preining gives Porsche a hat-trick with the 911 “Grello”.

Followed by two Audis n°16 and n°15 – Scherer Sport PHX of Frank Stippler – Christopher Mies – Ricardo Feller and Christopher Haase – Frédéric Vervisch – Dennis Marschall.

Luca Ludwig – Daniel Keilwitz – Felipe Fernandez Laser – Nico Varrone lifts the Ferrari 296 GT3 n°1 – Frikadelli Racing, winner of the two-hour circuit in 2023, to sixth place ahead of the Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO n°130 of first. – Team Mercedes -AMG Getspeed by Maro Engel – Adam Christodoulou – Jules Gounon. Following Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 n°27 – ABT of Marco Mapelli – Jordan Pepper – Kelvin van der Linde.

The smartest racing BMW M4 GT3s, for example n°72 – BMW M RMG Team of Charles Weerts – Dan Harper – Max Hesse 10th. 12th place for #99 – ROWE Racing of Dries Vanthoor – Sheldon van der Linde – Augusto Farfus, while #98 of Marciello – Martin – Wittmann was involved in an incident with BMW #514. Maxime Martin indicated that the car in front of him had spun, and he was unable to do anything to prevent the contact, causing him to retire.

Part of the top 5 on the grid, Glickenhaus SCG 004c n°706 of Franck Mailleux – Côme Ledogar – Lance David Arnold – Thomas Mutsch finished 18th.

Tomorrow, the day starts with qualifying for race 2 starting at 8:15 pm, before the Grand Prix (10:40 am) and the second race starting at 1 pm.

UPDATE : After the finish, we discovered that the Falken Team #33 Porsche 911 GT3 R had been penalized, resulting in a modified podium.