Sowery tops rain-hit Pre-Qualifying for Century Motorsport BMW

Sowery tops rain-hit Pre-Qualifying for Century Motorsport BMW

Century Motorsport led the way in this afternoon's Pre-Qualifying at the Nürburgring. The #991 BMW prevailed in a session hit by heavy rain, which prevented any quick laps from being posted. 

Toby Sowery set his time within the first 10 minutes, after which the rain increased and it became impossible to improve. The British driver circulated in 2m09.613s, beating the #188 Garage 59 Aston Martin of Adam Smalley by 0.301s. 

This meant that Bronze Cup cars were one-two in the session, while a Silver crew finished third overall. Yannick Mettler was two tenths adrift of Smalley in the #3 GetSpeed Mercedes-AMG, capping a fine performance from this year's CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa class winner.  

Franck Perera was fourth overall in the #163 Grasser Racing Lamborghini, continuing the strong form this crew showed in Free Practice. Henrique Chaves was fifth aboard the #34 Walkenhorst Motorsport Aston Martin, followed by the #99 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi and the #97 Rutronik Racing Porsche. The fastest nine cars all set their best times on their first flying lap. 

A Gold Cup car topped the overall order in Free Practice, but in a significant turnaround the class leader was only 20th in Pre-Qualifying. Lorenzo Ferrari was the best of them aboard the #88 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi, followed by the #25 Saintéloc Racing Audi that led this morning, and the #77 HRT Mercedes-AMG.

The session was interrupted by a red flag after 20 minutes to clear the track surface at the final corner. There were no other major incidents, though a number of cars suffered small spins and contact in the treacherous conditions. 

With Saturday's running complete, attention can now shift to Qualifying, which gets underway tomorrow morning at 08:45 CEST. This will set the grid for the main event: a three-hour Endurance Cup race that begins at 15:00. All of the action will be broadcast live on the GT World YouTube channel

Pre-Qualifying, Nürburgring 2024