Event>>2010 Nurburgring 24 Hours -4 Ring Circus

By: TheSpeedhunters

14th May 2010 10 Comments

The Phoney War is over, Qualifying for the 2010 Nurburgring 24 Hours is done. Early in the drying second session Marc Lieb put down a marker for the defending champions, Manthey Racing and Porsche. Then cousin Audi decided to muscle into the act with Marco Werner posting an amazing time of 8:24.753 in the #100 Audi R8 LMS.

Locking out the front row for Ingolstadt was #98 and Mike Rockenfeller just .815 of a second shy of pole.

Next up was the #2 Team Abt Sportline Audi with Lucas Luhr.

Completing the Audi triumph was Pierre Kaffer in the #99 R8 LMS.

Of course the timesheets do not tell the whole story…the track at the end, when Audi went for times, was in much better shape than when the Manthey car had their run. Nevertheless it would be churlish not to salute a great achievement by the Audi squad, pole in these conditions is a badge of honour of the highest standing.

Whatever they may say publicly, Porsche know that they will have to really produce the goods to add to their run of victories in the Nurburgring 24 Hours, what a great race we have in prospect.

SpeedHunters can cheer on their BMW Z4 GT3 outfit who scored a great pair of times to wind up 15th and 20th out of the 198 (yes 198!) qualifiers.

More when the sun (haha) rises.

John Brooks

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10 comments

3:24 pmMay 14, 2010

sweet. awesome pics as usual! I wish I had access to all of your pictures so I can desktop them =(

5:36 pmMay 14, 2010

Nice pics. I'll be there tomorrow in the afternoon 'till 1am. Can't wait.. it'll be a great race, I'm sure ! Manthey WILL do anything they can to get in front of those Audi's.

7:29 pmMay 14, 2010

I think the Audi's going to do it this year. The Rs8 are just too fast. In the past the fastest training run was always just a tick above the 8:30 mark done as usual by the Manthey Porsche and this year the R8s are doing it in the mid 8:20s. Of course, that doesn't mean much in a 24 hour race- I believe it was 2008 that the No.1 Manthey Porsche had to do a 15-20 min pitstop just after the start but still went on to win the race.

8:01 pmMay 14, 2010

First time in five years Im not there, just could not make it happen this year.

I love the flying start, almost 200 cars from all over the world in various classes going flat out down start/finish straight.

And nobody is holing in, first lap always seems like a sprint race not a 24h.

Its just one big party!