Nürburgring: "Half" Swiss on row 1
QUALI RECORD TIMES Dual citizen Sven Müller starts the 24 Hours of Nürburgring today at 3:30 p.m. in his Falken Porsche from second place. Best-placed driver under the Swiss flag is Edoardo Mortara on Mercedes. The Audi teams could not quite match the top speed. In Friday evening's top-30 qualifying session, the factory drivers were allowed to show what they and their GT3 sports cars are capable of. As the fastest [...]
In Friday evening's top-30 qualifying session, the factory drivers got to show what they and their GT3 sports cars are made of. The Porsche 911 GT3 R, led by Manthey Racing and Falken Motorsport, proved to be the fastest.
With lot number 1, Sven Müller in the Falken-tired Porsche set a new record time, which only the Belgian Laurens Vanthoor in the Manthey 911 beat after him by 417 thousandths. 8'09.105 (= 186.792 km/h) on the 25.378 km variant of the shortened GP circuit and Nordschleife - no one has ever been that fast in the modern era of the Nürburgring.
Two "half" Swiss in the Falken Motorsport team
Interesting from a Swiss perspective: Porsche works driver Sven Müller holds both a German and a Swiss passport. His French-speaking mother comes from Neuchâtel, where his grandmother still lives. He also visits her regularly. In racing and for the general public, however, the dual citizen is considered German.
His Falken teammate Alexandre Imperatori, driving the BMW M6 GT3, is Swiss by birth (from Châtel-St-Denis FR) but has lived in Shanghai for a long time and therefore drives with a Chinese license.
It was a similar story for a long time with Edoardo Mortara, whose Mercedes-AMG GT3 was qualified in seventh place by Spaniard Daniel Juncadella. Edo, born, raised and resident in Geneva, has been driving with a Swiss license for three years. In the DTM, he is considered Italian (like his father) for marketing reasons, but Swiss in Formula E and in GT races like the Nürburgring.
Audi drivers Fässler and Müller in the lurking position
The best-placed Audi on the grid for the 46th ADAC 24-hour race Nürburrging 2018 is that of last year's winning team Land Motorsport. Although Christopher Mies was only 3.4 seconds above the new record time, this is only enough for 15th place on the grid!
Raffaele Marciello from Ticino - until now always racing as an Italian and now competing with a Swiss license - qualified his Mercedes in 16th place. Alexander Müller, who has lived on Lake Constance (Bottighofen TG) for 20 years and has been a Swiss citizen for more than a year, lurks in 17th place with the Frikadelli Racing Porsche.
Marcel Fässler qualified in the Mücke Audi for 19th position. Nico Müller's Phoenix Audi, which is preferred in the race, is in 22nd place, his second Audi R8 LMS from Mücke in 27th. Although this starting position is optimal, top speed in qualifying is not what counts in a 24-hour race.
In between is the third Manthey Porsche with Philipp Frommenwiler (20th), whose entry is financed by privateer Otto Klohs (D).
The quartet with the Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus SCG003c (GT3-adapted sports car with 3.5-liter V6 biturbo engine from Honda), technically supported by Dario Pergolini from Liechtenstein, has to settle for 28th place on the grid. Last year, the flounder was on pole position but has since been noticeably slowed down via the Balance of Performance.
Finally, the Audi R8 team of Car Collection Motorsport with Simon Trummer also just made it into the top 30 (29th). This is important because they are allowed to fit a flashing blue warning light. This warns the slower competitors of lapping.
Good starting positions in the classes
A good starting position is held by some other Swiss in the field of 148 cars in their classes. Manuel Amweg starts in Team Milltek on a Toyota GT86 from the good third position in class SP3 (special cars up to two liters).
In the most crowded Cup touring car class of the BMW 235i Racing, the car of last year's winner Yannick Mettler starts from position 5, that of Fredy Barth from P8.
In the TCR class, Ruedi Rhyn (6th) and Roger Vögeli (8th) with their colleagues in the two Opel Astra TCRs from Lubner Motorsport can only make a difference over the distance if they themselves are spared technical problems or accidents.
As rain is forecast for phases, this factor in particular may play into the hands of one or the other Swiss who does not have the fastest car.
Those who are not there can follow the entire race live on TV on RTL Nitro (from 2:45 p.m.).
