HOCKENHEIMRING (22 May, 2021) – MiddleCap racing with Scuderia Praha will start its second consecutive 24H SERIES event from pole position following a session that saw three of the top four contenders split by an incredibly tight 0.009s. 

The MiddleCap racing with Scuderia Praha Ferrari 488 GT3 (#11, Matúš Výboh / Josef Král / Dennis Waszek), which finished 2nd at both of the previous 24H SERIES events, got the ball rolling early around the 4.574km Hockenheimring with a 1m 39.109s, a time that ultimately would not be beaten during the 30-minute session.  

Just behind the Ferrari though, a scintillating lap from Germany’s Max Edelhoff secured the Car Collection Motorsport Audi R8 LMS GT3 (#34, Gustav Edelhof / Elmar Grimm / Max Edelhoff) its best qualifying position of the season, just three-tenths adrift of the #11 Ferrari. Further back, the Leipert Motorsport Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo (#10, Brendon Leitch / Tyler Cooke / Fidel Leib / Seb Morris) claimed 3rd on the grid for its first GT3-class start in the 24H SERIES in more than four years, falling just 0.006s short of a front row start. Incredibly, the Rutronik Racing by TECE Audi R8 LMS GT3 (#18, Michael Doppelmayr / Pierre Kaffer / Elia Erhart / Swen Herberger) booked its own second row start on home turf with a laptime only 0.003s slower than Leipert.

Herberth Motorsport (#92, Jürgen Häring / Bobby Gonzales / Tim Müller / Alfred Renauer), already a two-time race winner in 2021, will start its home race from 6th on the grid, behind the Haegeli by T2 Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R (#66, Pieder Decurtins / Manuel Lauck / Marc Basseng). In an unorthodox move for the perennial Porsche customer, Herberth will compete this weekend with a Ferrari 488 GT3. 

Just behind the Bavarian team, the CP Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 (#85, Charles Putman / Charles Espenlaub / Joe Foster / Shane Lewis) and the second Car Collection Motorsport Audi R8 LMS GT3 (#88, Pierre-Yves Paque / Martin Lechmann / Vincent Piemonte / Christian Kranenberg) will line up 7th and 8th respectively.

The Reiter Engineering KTM X-BOW GTX (#725, Nico Pronk / Peter Kox / Dennis Retera) was the fastest of the GTX runners and will start 9th overall at The Hockenheimring ahead of the MP Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo (#58, Thomas Gostner / David Gostner / Corinna Gostner). A spin for the latter heading into turn two briefly caused the Code 60 flags to be flown, but a swift recovery allowed the Italian team to rejoin and round out the overall top 10 on the grid. 

The debuting 9und11 Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup MR (#719, Tim Scheerbrarth / Georg Goder / Ralf Oehme / Martin Schlüter) and Reiter Engineering’s second KTM (#724, Horst Felbermayr Jr. / Eike Angermayr / Nicolai Elghanayan / Mads Siljehaug) complete the GTX top three in qualifying and will start 11th and 12th overall. The Vortex V8 Vortex 1.0 meanwhile (#701, Philippe Bonnel / Nicolas Nobs / Bastien Gouret / Arnaud Gomez), which currently lies second in the Overall GT Teams’ championship, will start 19th after a difficult morning. 

The final GTX runner this weekend – Red Camel Jordans.nl (#999, Ivo Breukers / Luc Breukers / Ivo Breukers) – endured a tough start to its debut weekend with the new 992-generation Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, sensor issues preventing the Dutch team from completing even a single lap in qualifying. Red Camel Jordans.nl is set to start the race though this afternoon.

Class pole position in the 991 class went to the Bas Koeten Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (#925, Marcel van Berlo / Glenn van Berlo / Bart van Helden), which took an astounding overall win at this event last year. The MRS GT-Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (#989, Saif Alameri / Nikolai Gadetskii / Thierry Vermeulen) fell just 0.070s short of snatching the category’s top spot, and will thus start between Bas Koeten’s entry and the Willi Motorsport by Ebimotors Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (#955, Fabrizio Broggi / Sergiu Nicolae / Sabino de Castro). 

The ST Racing BMW M4 GT4 (#438, Samantha Tan / Chandler Hull / Jon Miller / Nick Wittmer) remains unbeaten in GT4 qualifying during its maiden 24H SERIES campaign, although the Canadian team was aided by an off-track moment for its nearest rival, PROsport Racing. The Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 (#401, Nico Verdonck / Rodrigue Gillion / Kurt Hensen) ended the 30-minute session in the barriers at turn 13 inside, an impact that brought an early end to qualifying for the Hankook 12H HOCKENHEIMRING.

Part one of this weekend’s Hankook 12H HOCKENHEIMRING gets underway this afternoon at 13.30 hrs local time and will run until 20.00 hrs this evening. After an overnight intervention, the race will continue on Sunday uninterrupted from 14.30 hrs until the chequered flag is flown at 20.00 hrs. The action will be live with commentary from radiolemans.com on the official 24H SERIES YouTube channel. Regular updates will also be published on Twitter (@24HSeries), Facebook (24H Series) and Instagram (24H Series). Further information can be found HERE