NURBURG, Germany — Max Hesse has secured pole position at the 52nd edition of the ADAC RAVENOL 24h Nürburgring. Having posted the best times in the qualifying sessions on Thursday and Friday, the 22-year-old in the No. 72 RMG-BMW was also the fastest driver in the battle for the final grid positions in the second top qualifying session. He went around in a time of 8:10.992 minutes, four-tenths of a second faster than Belgium’s Laurens Vanthoor in No. 911 Manthey-Porsche, becoming the youngest driver ever to claim the first Glickenhaus Trophy for securing the pole position, which Vanthoor himself had received in 2018.
“That is a really brilliant feeling. That pole position represents the pinnacle of five years’ hard work. We are in a great starting position for the race and the car is working perfectly. Of course, we have a long race ahead of us – but for today, we are simply delighted“, said Hesse.
Grello driver Vanthoor was also satisfied.
“The car drove really well. Those laps alone on the Nordschleife were so much fun. My pulse hit 190. I tried my best, but we are just behind the BMW. That represents a great starting position in the race nonetheless,” he said.
Swiss driver Ricardo Feller produced a faster second lap in the No. 16 Scherer Audi to reach third on the grid at the end, directly in front of his DTM teammate Kelvin van der Linde in the No. 27 Abt Lamborghini. Four different manufacturers occupy the top four positions.
Before the final showdown, Top Qualifying 1 saw a battle for the final five tickets for the second part. Nicolas Varrone chalked up the best time of 8:10.889 minutes to make it through in last year’s winning car, the No. 1 Frikadelli Ferrari, as did Sheldon van der Linde in the No. 99 Rowe BMW, Dan Harper in the No. 72 RMG BMW, Maro Engel in the No. 130 Getspeed Mercedes-AMG and Arjun Maini in the No. 3 Bilstein Mercedes AMG.
“It was really good. We did have a few problems earlier, but we changed the setup a little, which was good for the tires. The lap was relatively clean, although there was dirt on the track from the other series and that was a bit tricky. I really pushed on the second lap. I had this chance for clear laps for the first time, so that was wonderful”, said Varrone.
His teammate, Daniel Keilwitz, secured sixth place on the grid for the team.
