Benjamin Leuchter kept his promise to shine on the Nordschleife and set pole position for the WTCR’s Race 3 in a thrilling Qualifying session.
With the track that changed from slippery to nearly dry, the winning strategy was to wait for the final part of the 40-minute session before going for a fast lap. A strategy that was seriously compromised when Daniel Haglöf crashed a few hundreds metres from the finishing line in what was a very fast lap.
The yellow flags were waved and the drivers were forced to slow down to 60 kph in the zone of the incident, which prevented some of them from going faster.
Despite the Code 60 zone, some where able to improve and the pole position passed from Johan Kristoffersson (9:57.497) to Antti Buri (9:57.291) and then to Attila Tassi (9:57.232), Norbert Michelisz (9:55.425) and finally to Leuchter (9:51.327). Rob Huff followed his German teammate to qualify in second position, securing the full front row to Volkswagen. The current championship leader Esteban Guerrieri – who had set pole position in the first Qualifying earlier in the afternoon – was third fastest ahead of Michelisz and Gabriele Tarquini.
Kristoffersson ranked in tenth position and will start from the pole of the reverse grid for Race 2, with Buri alongside him.
Race 1 will start tomorrow at 17:30 local time (CET), while Races 2 and 3 will take place on Saturday at 11:00 and 12:20 respectively.
Qualifying 2
- 9:51.327 – Benjamin Leuchter (S. Loeb Racing, Volkswagen Golf GTI)
- 9:52.809 – Rob Huff (S. Loeb Racing, Volkswagen Golf GTI)
- 9:53.224 – Esteban Guerrieri (Münnich Motorsport, Honda Civic FK7)
- 9:55.425 – Norbert Michelisz (BRC Squadra Corse, Hyundai i30 N)
- 9:55.574 – Gabriele Tarquini (BRC Squadra Corse, Hyundai i30 N)
Championship points
- Esteban Guerrieri 169 pts
- Thed Björk 151
- Néstor Girolami 138