Grello takes pole for the Nürburgring 24 Hours, after delayed Top Qualifying shootout

Written by Aaron Carroll

Credit: Luna Maas

Top Qualifying got back underway at 4pm local time today, after the session was abandoned due to a massive crash for Laurens Vanthoor in the No.16 Scherer Sport PHX Porsche, that took them out of the race.

The cars would go out for one out lap, and just the one flying lap to set the top 16 positions on the grid for tomorrows race. With just one attempt to set a lap, the pressure was on for the chosen drivers.

The first car on the road was the No.34 Aston Martin driven by Nicki Thiim, followed by the No.33 Falken Porsche of Nico Menzel. Thiim was quick, but Menzel beat each of his sector times as they went around the lap.

The next car was the No.27 Red Bull liveried Lamborghini of Mirko Bortolotti, who went quickest in sector one, but the Italian couldn't keep going with more purple sectors.

With more cars coming behind, it was Kevin Estre in the No.911 Manthey Porsche that was lighting up the timing pages in the first half of the roughly eight minute lap.

Thiim crossed the line to set the benchmark time, an 8:19.3. Menzel went five seconds quicker, but that was soon eclipsed by the No.45 Ferrari of Thomas Neubauer. The No.27 Lamborghini slotted into third, the top three covered by half a second.

The No.1 Audi went fourth, 1.3s off the to. The No.35 and No.48 both slotted ahead of Thiim, who had dropped to eighth. The No.28 Lamborghini also went fifth, two seconds off the top.

But then came Estre, with an 8:12.7, 1.1 seconds clear of the field. Maro Engel in the No.14 Mercedes tried is hardest to beat the Frenchman, but couldn't, only managing third, behind Neubauer too.

The No.65 Ford Mustang went 11th, and the final car, the No.11 Mercedes stopped on the side of the track with an issue. That didn't matter much for them, as they were to be sent to the back of the first starting grid anyway.

So the final order was the No.911 from the No.45. Then came the No.14, No.33 and No.27 in third, fourth and fifth. The No.1, No.28, No.35, No.48 and No.17 finished out the top 10.

The rest of the grid will be set in Qualifying 3 at 4:40 local time, before the race gets underway at 4pm tomorrow.