Rutronik Racing secured its maiden Fanatec GT Europe Endurance Cup pole in this morning's Qualifying at the Nürburgring. The German squad prevailed after an extremely close contest, heading a Porsche one-two on home soil.
The session began on a damp track, but with the sun breaking through a dry line soon emerged. This was in stark contrast with Saturday, when heavy rain and mist swept across the Nürburgring.
Three cars had a clear shot at pole when the third segment of Qualifying got underway, led by the #96 Rutronik Racing Porsche thanks to strong showings from Julien Andlauer (fastest in Q1) and Sven Müller (fifth in Q2). The #7 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin was just 0.043s back, with the #22 Schumacher CLRT Porsche a further 0.054s shy in third.
The #96 Porsche completed the job thanks to Patric Niederhauser, who set a time good enough for third in Q3, narrowly beating the #22 machine driven by Dorian Boccolacci. These two cars will therefore share front row of the grid for what will be Porsche's first series pole since last year's CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa. The gap between them on average times was less than one tenth of a second.
The #163 Grasser Racing Lamborghini jumped to third having produced a consistent run of P4, P7 and P2 across the three segments. The #47 Mercedes-AMG Team Mann-Filter entry will take the start from fourth, its cause having been aided by a new qualifying lap record of 1m53.121s from Maro Engel.
Row three will be occupied by the #2 Mercedes-AMG team GetSpeed and the #71 AF Corse Ferrari, while the #7 Aston Martin slipped to seventh in the final classification. It will share the fourth row with its closest championship rival, the #998 ROWE Racing BMW
Saintéloc Racing earned Gold Cup pole with its #25 Audi. Gilles Magnus made sure of this by placing ninth overall in Q3 after Jim Pla and Paul Evrard had run the first two session for the French squad. The bonus point for pole double's the #25 crew's narrow lead in the Gold Cup standings.
In the Silver Cup, Boutsen VDS seized the advantage with its #10 Mercedes-AMG. Aurélien Panis, Cesar Gazeau and Roee Meyuhas combined to qualify 19th overall, a full 12 spots clear of their closest class rivals. Panis was the best of them, placing 12th overall in Q3.
Rutronik Racing capped a perfect day by adding Bronze Cup pole with its #97 Porsche. Pro driver Dennis Marschall was sixth overall and comfortably the best of the Bronze contingent in Q2, while Dustin Blattner and Loek Hartog also delivered strong showings to secure top spot.
There were a handful of incidents during Qualifying. Notably, the #57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG suffered damage in Q1 and did not run thereafter, consigning the Silver Cup points leader to the very back of the grid.
The #35 Walkenhorst Aston Martin will also require significant attention after Lorcan Hanafin crashed heavily in Q2. The car appeared to suffer a failure before hitting the tyre barriers, though the driver was able to exit unassisted.
This accident caused a red flag that brought Q2 to a slightly early end. More significantly, it also resulted in a 30-minute delay to allow the barrier to be repaired.
This afternoon's three-hour Endurance Cup race begins at 15:00 and will air live in English, German, French and Italian on the GT World YouTube channel.
RESULTS: Qualifying, Nürburgring 2024