Max Hesse has secured pole position at the 52nd edition of the ADAC RAVENOL 24h Nürburgring. After setting the fastest times in the qualifying sessions on Thursday and Friday, the 22-year-old in the #72 RMG-BMW was also the fastest in the battle for the final grid positions in the second top qualifying session. With a time of 8:10.992 minutes, he was four tenths of a second faster than Belgian Laurens Vanthoor in the #911 Manthey-Porsche and became the youngest driver ever to win the Glickenhaus Trophy for the pole-sitter.
“This is a very cool feeling. For me, pole is the result of five years of hard work. We are in a great starting position for the race and the car is working perfectly. Of course, we still have a long race ahead of us - but today we are simply happy,” said Max Hesse. “Grello” driver Vanthoor was also satisfied. “The car was really good to drive. The laps alone on the Nordschleife were really fun. My heart rate was 190, I tried, but we are just behind the BMW. That's still a great starting position for the race tomorrow,” he said.
BMW, Porsche, Audi and Lamborghini - four brands in the top four places
Swiss driver Ricardo Feller drove a stronger second lap in the #16 Scherer-Audi to finish third on the grid, directly ahead of his DTM team-mate Kelvin van der Linde in the #27 Abt-Lamborghini. This meant that four different manufacturers occupied the first four places.
Defending champion survives top qualifying 1
Before the final showdown, the last five tickets for the second stage were fought over in Top Qualifying 1. Nicolas Varrone's best time of 8:10.889 minutes secured last year's winner, the #1 Frikadelli-Ferrari, as well as Sheldon van der Linde for the #99 Rowe-BMW, Dan Harper for the #72 RMG-BMW, Maro Engel for the #130 Getspeed-Mercedes-AMG and Arjun Maini for the #3 Bilstein-Mercedes AMG. “It was really good. After we had a few problems before, we changed the setup a bit, which was very good for the new tire. The lap was really clean, although there was a bit of dirt on the track from the frame series and that was a bit difficult. I pushed hard on the second lap. It was the first time I had this chance to do two clear laps, which was wonderful,” said Varrone. Team-mate Daniel Keilwitz secured sixth place on the grid for the team in the end.
Full program on site, extensive live reports
Now that the positions for the start of the 24h Nürburgring have been established, the “race of the year” can finally get underway on Saturday at 16:00. But before the 127 participants embark on the spectacular fight through day and night, a full program awaits the spectators at the Nürburgring. The thrilling motorsport on the track starts at 9:10 am with the ADAC 24h-Classic. After the warm-up for the main race at 12:40 pm, the touring car legends will contest their third race of the weekend at 2:00 pm. The Ravenol Ferris wheel in the paddock and many other offers and promotions from partners also make the visit more than worthwhile. Tickets are still available at the box office. Fans can also look forward to car parades by BMW, Hyundai and Volkswagen as well as a lap of honor by rally world champion Kalle Rovanperä in a Toyota. If you want to follow the action at the Ring from home, free TV partner NITRO is the right choice, with a 26-hour non-stop live broadcast starting at 14:45. The official live streams on YouTube (www.YouTube.com/24hNBR) and on the event website (www.24h-rennen.de/live) will also be on air continuously.