– The Gamota-BMW #23 (Zsigo/Kranz/Jahn) secured pole position on Saturday during qualifying for the first race of the 24h Nürburgring Qualifiers 2026, surprising many of the favored teams. David Jahn set a time of 8:09.488 minutes early in the session, which was temporarily interrupted, a time that none of the rivals could beat.
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Not even Max Verstappen. The Winward-Mercedes #3 (Verstappen/Auer) ended up in sixth position. However, whether the car will start the race from this position is still uncertain, as the race officials are investigating the Formula 1 star’s vehicle.
Teammate Lucas Auer collided with the Porsche Cayman #941 from the Adrenalin team during a failed overtaking maneuver in the Hohe Acht section of the track. The incident was reviewed by the race stewards after qualifying.
Update 12:15 PM: The race stewards imposed a three-position grid penalty on the Winward-Mercedes #3.
Top favorites not quite at the front in qualifying
The best time of the Gamota-BMW was not the only surprise in qualifying. In second place is the Schnitzelalm-Mercedes #11 (Heyer/Härtling/Fitje), a car from the Pro-Am category of the GT3 class SP 9, which is unlikely to contend for the overall win in the race.
Third place went to the KCMG-Mercedes #47 (Fukuzumi/Krohn/Pittard/Gamo), which had secured pole position a week ago in the Nürburgring Endurance Series (NLS). Fourth was the Black-Falcon-Porsche #48 (Arrow/Assenheimer/T. Müller/Pereira), another Pro-Am car from the GT3 class.
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Following in the next positions were the Winward-Mercedes #80 (Engel/Schiller/Stolz) ahead of the sister car #3. The Abt-Lamborghini #84 (Engstler/Bortolotti/Niederhauser), the Scherer-Phx-Audi #16 (Haase/Sims/B. Green), the Konrad-Lamborghini #7 (Paul/Lefterow/Stalidzane), and the Mühlner-Porsche #123 (Rump/Bünnagel) completed the top 10, narrowly missing out was the Manthey-Porsche #911 “Grello” (Preining/Campbell/Breuer) in twelfth place.
Long interruption after Aston Martin accident
16 minutes after the start, qualifying was interrupted for about 50 minutes with a red flag. This followed an accident involving Anders Buchardt in the Walkenhorst-Aston-Martin #39 (Walkenhorst/Hantke/Buchardt/Jensen) in the Adenauer Forest.
In the left-hand curve at the entrance to the track section, the Norwegian drove too hard over the inside curb, lost control of the vehicle, and crashed into the track barrier.
Buchardt emerged from the accident uninjured. However, since significant repairs to the guardrails were necessary and the Saturday schedule had enough buffer time, the race officials decided to interrupt qualifying.
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The first race over a distance of four hours will start at 5:30 PM.
