As the best-placed Porsche team, Porsche works drivers Marc Lieb (Germany), Timo Bernhard (Germany) and Romain Dumas (France) take up the 24 hour race on Saturday with Lucas Luhr (Switzerland) from the fourth grid row. At the wheel of Manthey Racing’s Porsche 911 GT3 R, they concluded the final qualifying for the long distance classic in the Eifel on eighth place.
“I drove the GT3 today but didn’t manage to find an optimal lap because I had to wait too long at the pit lane exit and was therefore too late. All in all I have to say that I couldn’t do much more. But we now have 24 hours ahead of us,” said Marc Lieb (No. 11/18, Manthey Racing)
The Porsche 911 GT3 R Hybrid (Version 2.0) with drivers Joerg Bergmeister (Germany), Richard Lietz (Austria), Marco Holzer (Germany) and Patrick Long (USA) posted the eleventh quickest time. The Porsche works drivers were able to improve on their first qualifying session by three places, but the gap to the top was just over seven seconds.
“We obviously made the right decision and went for top times when it was dry right from the start. It worked and I got in a clear lap. Our car is handling very well,” said Joerg Bergmeister (No. 9, Porsche Team Manthey)
Starting in 17th, directly behind the 911 GT3 RSR from Manthey Racing is Porsche factory pilot Wolf Henzler (Germany) as well as Peter Dumbreck (Great Britain), Martin Ragginger (Austria) and Sebastian Asch (Germany) in the Porsche 911 GT3 R of Falken Motorsports.
“First we had to run in all the new parts for the race, the engine, gearbox, brake pads and so on. When I wanted to go out for my fast lap it began to rain. At the entrance to the Nordschleife I began to slide on all four wheels and had to abandon my lap. When we tried again towards the end of the session the track was still partly wet and then I encountered a car sideways in front of me and had to brake hard. It’s a shame, I could have done better,” said Wolf Henzler (No. 44, Falken Motorsports)
Nürburgring 24 hour Qualifying Results
1. Farnbacher/Simonsen/Seefried/Melo (D/MC/D/I), Ferrari F 458, 8:23.764 minutes
2. Mamerow/Hahne/Kaffer (D/D/CH), Mercedes-Benz SLS, + 1.897 seconds
3. Heyer/Jäger/Bleekemolen/Seyffarth (D/D/NL/D), Mercedes-Benz SLS, + 3.016
4. Müller/Werner/Adorf/Lamy (D/D/D/P), BMW M3 GT, + 3.666
5. Müller/Farfus/Alzen/Lamy (D/BRA/D/P), BMW M3 GT, +4.151
6. Arnold/Margaritis/Brück/Frankenhout (D/D/D/NL), Mercedes-Benz SLS, + 4.503
8. Lieb/Luhr/Bernhard/Dumas (D/CH/D/F), Porsche 911 GT3 R, + 5.027
11. Bergmeister/Lietz/Holzer/Long (D/A/D/USA), Porsche 911 GT3 R Hybrid, + 7.087
16. Lieb/Bernhard/Dumas/Luhr (D/D/F/CH), Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, + 8.315
17. Henzler/Dumbreck/Ragginger/Asch (D/GB/A/D), Porsche 911 GT3 R, + 8.485
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[Source: PCNA]