The Rutronik customer team will start the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring with the Porsche 911 GT3 R from ninth place on the grid. In extremely difficult conditions on an extremely wet track, Porsche Young Professional Julien Andlauer set the fastest lap time of all eleven-man drivers. The 21-year-old Frenchman circumnavigated the 25.378-kilometre course in 10:14.558 minutes. The identical, more than 500 hp cars from Manthey (start number 911) and Frikadelli Racing (number 31) will go from positions eleven and twelve to the popular endurance race in the Eifel on Saturday afternoon at 3:30 p.m.

The five Porsche 911 GT3 R of Frikadelli Racing, Manthey, Huber Motorsport and Rutronik were already nominated for the final shootout for the best 20 grid positions due to strong performances in the qualifying race as well as in two rounds of the Nürburgring Endurance Series (NLS; formerly VLN).

The customer teams KCMG and Falken Motorsports still had the chance to secure a place in the individual time trial in top qualifying 1. This project failed shortly before the onset of a heavy rain with lightning and thunder. The starting number 18 of KCMG starts from rank 26, the two Falcons elevens will start from positions 28 and 29.

The decisive second part of the top qualifying was started about half an hour late due to the heavy rains.

On an enormously wet track, the pilots struggled with a lack of grip and aquaplaning. While Andlauer completed a clean lap at the wheel of start number 3, Kévin Estre touched the guardrails on his second and last fast lap in the adenauer forest area after a spin. The Frenchman was able to drive his car back to the pits despite minor damage. Less luck in misfortune had Matt Campbell. The works driver from Australia, with the #30 Frikadelli Racing car, landed in the barriers in the Mine section and had to stop qualifying, while team-mate Dennis Olsen from Norway finished twelfth in the sister car. Nico Menzel reached 15th place on the grid at the wheel of the Huber Motorsport car.

"From our point of view, it is a sobering result," summarizes Sebastian Golz, project manager porsche 911 GT3R. "We were on a wet track with all our customer cars too far away from the top. We need to look very carefully at the data to see why we did not get the tyres into the working window at all under these conditions. We are now going into the analysis and want to find solutions until the race so that we will be competitive in the race even on a wet track." The 24-hour race on TV and internet

The free TV channel NITRO will show the 49th edition of the endurance race live over the full distance from Saturday, 5 June at 15:30.

Driver's comments on qualifying

Julien Andlauer (Porsche 911 GT3 R #3): "It was the very first time I drove on the Nordschleife in the rain. So I didn't even know what to expect on the long lap. I slowly groped my way around, felt more and more comfortable in the car. In the second lap I really wanted to accelerate again, but unfortunately I was stopped in traffic. Overall, I'm very happy because I was the fastest driver in a Porsche 911 GT3 R. I never expected that."

Kévin Estre (Porsche 911 GT3 R #911): "It was anything but easy. In my first fast lap, there was aquaplaning everywhere, and I was also stuck behind an Audi that stirred up an incredible amount of water. Visibility was poor underground. In the second lap I was on course for a time improvement, but then I turned. The car was only slightly damaged. Eleventh place on the grid is not ideal, but albeit not the end of the world. Our car will certainly be strong in the race."

Dennis Olsen (Porsche 911 GT3 R #31): "It wasn't fun at all. It was an uphill battle to keep the car on track at all. When braking many curves, the vehicle first slipped straight ahead. It was a shivering game in every single corner. After all, I managed to get the rounds behind me without an impact. I just didn't want to take any more risks, because it would have been anything but funny to leave a pile of rubble behind. Twelfth place is fine. We're attacking in the race."