Result of the 24h qualification race: Schubert-BMW wins

K Haribo belonged to almost six hours -Mercedes among the contenders for victory. The team, which, in addition to Marco Holzer, Uwe Alzen and Mike Stursberg, was reinforced by DTM driver Maxi Götz, dominated the race from the start. Alzen pulled away at the start and gained a comfortable lead. In between the lead kept changing.

Dramatic final phase

In the final phase, too, it looked like a Mercedes victory. But the tide turned around 15 minutes before the end. The SLS had to go to the pit unplanned because vibrations on the front axle caused problems. After a short check and with new front tires, Götz drove out of the pits again, but had already lost the lead to Schubert's BMW Z4 with Claudia Hürtgen, Dominik Baumann, Martin Tomczyk and Jens Klingmann. The duel did not materialize, the SLS stopped in the carousel. As in the previous year, victory in the 24h qualifying race after 41 laps went to BMW. 'Of course the circumstances played into our cards - but we are still happy about the victory,' said Martin Tomczyk.

Second place was not taken by a GT3 car, but by the Cup race modified by Manthey Porsche by Christoph Breuer, Sven Müller and Matteo Cairoli. 'Second place is a success for us that we didn't expect,' said Breuer. 'It is the first race with the car and these drivers that we were able to drive through - compliments to the whole team, we are all very happy.'

Third place also went to a Cup Porsche from the team Black Falcon with the cast of Philipp Eng, Manuel Metzger, Hannes Plesse and 'Gerwin'. The next GT3 car follows with the Falken Porsche of Peter Dumbreck and Wolf Henzler in fourth place ahead of the second Schubert BMW in fifth place (Sims /Müller /Werner /Wittmann).

Bentley and Glickenhaus with problems

At Bentley, the use of the two HTP cars was not crowned with success. The duo Jeroen Bleekemolen /Brück had to give up 17 laps before the end due to a technical defect. Team colleagues Lance-David Arnold and Clemens Schmid only managed five more laps. 'After we received reports that our vehicle was too loud, we pitted,' said Arnold. 'We don't want to risk a black flag. We can't explain the problem because we're in the same configuration as the first oneVLN races - at that time we were within the limits. '

This problem is also known at Scuderia Glickenhaus. The noise regulations were exceeded at VLN 1, and Manuel Lauck's car saw David Jahn in the 24h qualifying race and Marino Franchitto again the black and orange flag. But the problem was solved and made it to 13th place. The sister car did not even roll into the starting grid. As in qualifying, they struggled with an electrical problem. Also the Zakspeed SLS could not even start the race due to a technical problem.

Slow zones prove themselves in the race

In addition to the sporting results, the focus was also on the new regulation of the slow zones. The lap times were therefore around five seconds slower. The speed limit of 200 km /h at the airfield, Schwedenkreuz and Antoniusbuche and 250 km /h on the Döttinger Höhe was implemented by most of the top teams with the help of pitspeed limiter programming.

Ma rtin Tomczyk said: 'We are fully behind the low-speed zones, they are well signposted and safety comes first for us.' Other drivers were also positive and were surprised at the implementation in practice. Race director Walter Hornung was also satisfied: “I have to pay the drivers a big compliment: We didn't have to punish a single speed violation on the track. That shows me how professionally the drivers and teams dealt with the new - and for everyone involved - unfamiliar situation on the Nordschleife. Nevertheless, you have to fine-tune the sporting rules a little before the 24h race. We will tackle this together with the DMSB in the next few days. ”

Above all, the speed limit of 30 km /h in the pit lane should still cause discussions. There were some time penalties here for exceeding the speed limit. From GT3 drivers it was heard that 30 km /h can hardly be maintained, since this is already achieved with idle.