The Mercedes-AMG Customer Racing Teams got themselves into an ideal initial position in Top Qualifying for the ADAC TotalEnergies 24h Nürburgring. With a faultless opening lap and a time of 8m 09.058s, Raffaele Marciello (SUI) emerged as the fastest driver with the #4 Mercedes-AMG Team BILSTEIN entry and secured pole position as a result. This time was also the best Top Qualifying lap ever for the Nürburgring 24-hour race. Tomorrow at the start of the race, the #2 Mercedes-AMG Team GetSpeed car will be alongside him. Maro Engel (GER) came within around four tenth of a second of his fellow Mercedes-AMG driver. With the #6 Mercedes-AMG Team BILSTEIN car driven by Arjun Maini (IND) and the #2 Mercedes-AMG Team GetSpeed car with Maximilian Götz (GER) behind the wheel, two further Mercedes-AMG GT3s made it into the top 10. Earlier on, the Mercedes-AMG GT3s had shown a convincing performance with all six cars having advanced into the decisive Top Qualifying 2.
The provisional starting grid positions for the ADAC TotalEnergies 24h-race at the Nürburgring:
P1: #4 Mercedes-AMG GT3, Mercedes-AMG Team BILSTEIN
P2: #3 Mercedes-AMG GT3, Mercedes-AMG Team GetSpeed
P7: #6 Mercedes-AMG GT3, Mercedes-AMG Team BILSTEIN
P10: #2 Mercedes-AMG GT3, Mercedes-AMG Team GetSpeed
P13: #10 Mercedes-AMG GT3, Schnitzelalm Racing
P18: #11 Mercedes-AMG GT3, Schnitzelalm Racing
P31: #222 Mercedes-AMG GT2, Mercedes-AMG Team Schnitzelalm
P32: #46 Mercedes-AMG GT2, Mercedes-AMG Team HRT
P58: #89 Mercedes-AMG GT4, Haupt Racing Team
“Eventually, we certainly were able to benefit from the best track conditions and therefore we could to decide the close qualifying in our favour. Moreover, we were able build on the vast experience with our car that we managed to rack up during the many races here at the Nordschleife.”
Stefan Wendl, Leiter Mercedes-AMG Customer Racing
“The result is a nice feeling. However, we know that a pole position doesn’t mean a lot here. The goal was to start in the top 10. We have a good car for the race. Since NLS3, everything has been going well, my teammates and I feel very comfortable. Edo Mortara hasn’t raced at the Nordschleife for five years and was strong right away.”
Raffaele Marciello, Mercedes-AMG Team BILSTEIN #4
“This is a super result, of course, the Mercedes-AMG GT3 was fantastic to drive again. This Top Qualifying with fresh tyres and without traffic at this unbelievable track is always spectacular. Today, it was second place behind Lello, so a super result for Mercedes-AMG and a super initial position for tomorrow’s race.”
Maro Engel, Mercedes-AMG Team GetSpeed #3
“That was super job by the entire team, we got both cars into the top 10. Fabi got the car into Top Qualifying 2 with a super lap and that was the foundation for our good grid position in the race. I tried to give it my all and the car was really good to drive. However, these were my first fast laps of the Nordschleife this weekend, so perhaps there is a little bit more in store. But we have to be happy. Last year, we started from P19 and we finished second. So, it is a good omen that we are further up the grid. Now, the full focus is on the race and that is a really good grid position. From the fifth row on the grid, it is possible to achieve quite something.”
Maximilian Götz, Mercedes-AMG Team GetSpeed #2
“Seventh place is a good start of the important part of the weekend. I am not one hundred percent satisfied with my lap. I didn’t get everything out of it. There was more grip than expected so we could have achieved a little bit more.”
Arjun Maini, Mercedes-AMG Team BILSTEIN #6
“Even though our position is a double-digit one, we can be very satisfied altogether. This is the best position we ever had in a Top Qualifying. We are three and a half seconds down on the top cars which is an impressive achievement for us as a privateer team. We really can build on this. Of course, one always wants to be all the way at the front in Top Qualifying. We gave it our all, we couldn’t have achieved anything more. But tomorrow is the race and then we have to make it through for 24 hours.”
Marek Böckmann, Schnitzelalm Racing #10
“In qualifying, we still tried quite a lot of things. In the second heat, I tried a new tyre compound which in hindsight turned out to be the wrong decision. All in all, therefore, there certainly would have been some more performance, but we will make up for that in the race.”
Thomas Jäger, Mercedes-AMG Team HRT #46
“That is a moment we have been working for to achieve for a long time. We know that a 24-hour race is long, but at the moment, joy and relief that we are competitive is massive. The guys have deserved this during the past few days, they invested many hours for this project. That was a mega drive by Lello, but also by Arjun with P7 in his first-ever Top Qualfiying. We couldn’t be any happier.”
Ulrich Fritz, managing director Haupt Racing Team
“We have secured ourselves very good grid positions for the race, we are in the top 10 with both cars. Maro only just missed out on pole by the tiny margin of 0.422 seconds with the #3 car. The #2 car will start the race from tenth. The drivers are happy with the two Mercedes-AMG GT3s, so that we are very confident for the race twice around the clock.”
Adam Osieka, team principal GetSpeed
Source. Mercedes
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