The second victory in the ADAC 24h Nürburgring Qualifiers also went to Falken-Porsche: Nico Menzel and Martin Ragginger took the second win for the blue and green #44 Porsche 911 GT3-R on Sunday. After 27 laps, they were 1.793 seconds ahead of the #98 Rowe-BMW M4 GT3. The third-placed brand colleagues from Manthey completed the podium on Sunday with the #911 "Grello" nine-eleven. The extensive opportunity to prepare for the 24-hour race at the end of May and the classification of both races for the Nürburgring Langstreckenserie (NLS) meant that the tenth edition of the event attracted more participants than ever and an even bigger crowd. After a top-class sporting weekend, fans will have to wait a little longer until the season highlight in seven weeks' time, when the winner's trophy will be awarded for the 52nd time in the longest race on the world's most beautiful and challenging race track. Information and results from the weekend as well as continuous reporting on the official homepage at www.24h-rennen.de will help to shorten the wait until the race of the year.

"It can go on like this - if there was a subscription, I would book it immediately," said local hero Nico Menzel after the finish. He had celebrated his second victory on the Nordschleife in the Falken Porsche #44 in Sunday's race of the 24h Qualifiers, having already won the NLS opener. Team-mate Martin Ragginger, who had previously driven the nine-eleven to the finish in the lead, grinned: "I'm delighted that I was able to clinch victory for Falken with Nico. The weekend went very well for us. Everyone in the team really did a top job and it finally worked out for me." In the end, only the Rowe-BMW #98 was able to hold its own against the dominant Porsche: "As long as you're not at the top, things can always be better - but in principle, I'm personally satisfied with our performance," said former DTM champion Marco Wittmann, who shared the GT3 with Maxime Martin and Raffaele Marciello over the weekend. "After we had a small accident yesterday and were unable to finish the race, things went well today. But we're still missing that crucial bit on Porsche, and I hope that we can make up for that before the 24-hour race. I can hardly wait."

Porsche in the role of provisional favorite
With a track time of just over twelve hours, the weekend offered the top teams in particular a perfect opportunity to prepare for the ADAC RAVENOL 24h Nürburgring from May 30 to June 2 and the last chance to drive the 25.378 km "24h version" of the Nürburgring under competitive conditions. Even though many of the top teams were therefore primarily focused on preparations for the 24h at the end of May, this weekend gave a first impression of the balance of power on the Nordschleife. Porsche in particular left a strong impression. After the one-two success at the 24h Qualifiers and two race wins at the NLS opener a week earlier, the Porsche 911 GT3-Rs are now definitely the favorites for the 24h Nürburgring as well. Afterwards, race director Walter Hornung assessed the results from his point of view: "We saw some great endurance racing on the Nordschleife this weekend. Around 130 participants, well-filled spectator areas around the Nordschleife - that was an impressive foretaste of the 24h Nürburgring on the Corpus Christi weekend. The two races on Saturday and Sunday were extremely exciting, but of course we will be intensively evaluating the huge amounts of data from the GT3 cars over the next few days and readjusting the Balance of Performance. After all, that is one of the most important functions of the qualifiers: to enable fair and balanced racing in the actual 24-hour race."

NLS brings record number of participants to the 24h Qualifiers
Around 130 teams submitted their entries for the tenth edition of the 24h Qualifiers, offering thrilling battles across all classes. For them, it was not least about the class and overall placings in the Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie (NLS), which included both races of the weekend for the first time this year. With now four races in two "double-header weekends", the NLS has already reached the halfway point of the season. Sven Markert, Ranko Mijatovic and Toby Goodman in the Adrenalin BMW #650 from the M240i Racing Cup class were able to celebrate the unofficial title of "half-time champions". On Sunday, they were the only NLS team to take victory in their well-staffed class for the fourth time in a row, while all their closest rivals in the championship battle had to give up ground. "Our weekend went perfectly again," said a delighted Ranko Mijatovic. "We're taking a more relaxed approach, driving defensively, and that's the key to success. At the moment, I don't even realize that we really are half-time champions - of course I'm mega-happy about that. But it's obviously going to be a huge challenge to keep this up throughout the season."