Nürburgring (DE), 27th May 2016. The stage is set for a gripping
24-hour race at the Nürburgring (DE): In the Top-30 qualifying for the
endurance classic, teams and drivers competed for the best grid
positions in tricky weather conditions. At the wheel of the number 18
BMW M6 GT3, Augusto Farfus (BR) was the quickest BMW driver in the
single-lap competition, setting a personal best time of 8:16.146
minutes. Farfus, Jesse Krohn (FI), Jörg Müller (DE) and Marco Wittmann
(DE) will start from second on the grid for the Schubert Motorsport
team on Saturday. Farfus just missed pole position by a gap of 1.631
seconds to the first-placed Mercedes.
Walkenhorst Motorsport’s number 999 BMW M6 GT3 clocked the
second-fastest lap time for BMW: Victor Bouveng (SE), Tom Blomqvist
(GB), Michele di Martino (DE) and Christian Krognes (NO), who was at
the wheel during the session, finished sixth. ROWE Racing also brought
one BMW M6 GT3, the number 22 car, into the top-ten. Nick Catsburg
(NL) clocked the seventh-fastest time, before having to stop following
an accident on his second timed lap. The BMW M6 GT3 cars number 100
and number 23 came 13th and 15th respectively.
Driver quotes after top-30 qualifying:
Augusto Farfus (Schubert Motorsport, number 18 BMW M6 GT3, 2nd place):
“Conditions were far from easy today, but P2 is obviously a great
result. The track was still damp in some areas, so you had to be
extremely careful. It’s nice that the long phase of preparations is
over and that the race is now almost here. We are ready, and there’s
not much more we could have done. A long 24 hours await us, and the
weather will surely be a challenging factor. However, we have a strong
squad and will be fully focussed.”
Christian Krognes (Walkenhorst Motorsport powered by Dunlop,
number 999 BMW M6 GT3, 6th place):
“This is a great result for us – although it wasn’t easy out there
during the session. Our team managed to put together a fantastic
package. It will be a long race. For the first time I’m contesting the
24 hours in a GT3 car. This makes me even happier with this qualifying result.”
Jens Klingmann (Schubert Motorsport, number 100 BMW M6 GT3,
13th place):
“The basis of our preparation is really good, we are heading in the
right direction. However, the weather conditions will be the tricky
factor in this race. This will definitely be a major challenge on
Saturday and Sunday. Only in the race itself will we see how strong
the competition really is. That’s why we only focus on ourselves. The
first goal is to make it through the race without any major incidents.
This alone will be a difficult task.”
Maxime Martin (ROWE Racing, number 23 BMW M6 GT3, 15th place):
“Unfortunately I lost some time behind another car, so a better
result wasn’t possible. We didn’t take any risks. Now I’m really happy
that the race is finally drawing closer, especially because our
package seems to be competitive here. Where this will take us in the
very first year of the BMW M6 GT3, we will see. In any case we have a
strong team, and we are really confident. Let the 24-hour race begin.”