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Augusto Farfus sets the fastest time in the night
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Second place for Bentley Team Dept.
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Twelve places left in the top 30 qualifying
BMW Team Schnitzer secured the provisional best time for training at the 45th ADAC Zurich 24h race on Thursday evening in qualifying. DTM driver Augusto Farfus, who was the first Brazilian to win the 2010-hour race in 24, undercut the previous best time of his team-mate Antonio Felix da Costa (Portugal) in the number 6 BMW M3 GT43 a few minutes before the end of qualifying in 8: 22,307 minutes. again by a tenth of a second. The quartet of the record winning team Schnitzer, which also includes Timo Scheider (Braubach) and Alex Lynn (Great Britain), was just under a second faster than the number 38 Abt Bentley from Christer Jöns (Ingelheim), Christian Mamerow (Waltrop), Jordan Lee Pepper (South Africa) and Christopher Brück (Cologne), who took 8: 23,255 minutes.
“It doesn't really matter much today. We are now number 43, the 42 car is also in the front. It's okay for today, but tomorrow we have to make sure we reach the top 30 qualifying before we can fight for pole position, ”said Farfus.
The two first-placed cars both took course for a place in the top 30 qualifying. So far, according to the results of the first two VLN races and the 24-hour qualifying race, 18 of the coveted 30 tickets for the individual time trial for pole position and the best starting places have been awarded. This includes the second-ranked second Schnitzer BMW with the number 42, in which double starter Farfus drives together with DTM champion Marco Wittmann (Fürth), Tom Blomqvist (Great Britain) and Martin Tomczyk (Kolbermoor). In addition to the right to start in the top 30 qualifying, the 30 fastest vehicles are also given a blue lamp behind the windscreen for the race, which makes them easier to see in the rear-view mirror for slower vehicles.
The second qualifying session will take place on Friday morning from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., after which the times from both qualification sessions will be used to determine the order in which the vacancies in the top 30 qualifying sessions will be allocated. The starting order in the individual time trial is traditionally drawn on Friday from 15:00 p.m. to 15:40 p.m. in the ring ° boulevard. The hunt for pole position then begins at 19:50 p.m. Fans can follow the action live on free TV on RTL NITRO or with numerous additional onboard camera settings in the livestream on www.24h-rennen.de.
Cover picture: Nürburgring 24 Hours 2017, Nürburgring-Nordschleife - Photo: Group C Photography