Tricky wet/dry conditions challenge drivers as 24H Nürburgring qualifying begins

The 54th ADAC RAVENOL 24 Hours of the Nürburgring kicked off Thursday afternoon amid typical Eifel weather. After rainy conditions at the start of Qualifying 1 and numerous spins, there were some fast lap times on a dry track midway through the session, before heavy rain and even hail set in toward the end.

The first benchmark time of the weekend was set by the No. 80 RAVENOL Mercedes-AMG with a lap of 8m14.957s. The defending N24 champions in the No. 1 Rowe BMW followed in second place, 3.112s adrift. Third fastest was the No. 3 Verstappen Mercedes AMG, with F1 world champion Max Verstappen setting a 8m15.539s ahead of the No. 99 Rowe BMW.

"You really don't want to start the 24h Nürburgring like this, in these conditions," said Audi driver Christopher Haase. "We headed out when there were still a few wet patches. That makes it incredibly difficult. We’re in a temperature range where the tires take longer to warm up. We were just feeling our way through it at first. I could see that there’s no point in pushing too hard right now. We still need to work out a few things on the car.”

The action continues with evening qualifying, starting at 1:45pm ET and continuing through 5:45pm. Top Qualifying follows Friday starting at 4:00am ET.

Watch qualifying and the 24H Nürburgring LIVE in its entirety on RACER Network and RACER+