Nurburgring 24: Yelloly hands ROWE rain-soaked pole

The weather was the deciding factor in the 20-car Top Qualifying 2 shootout at the Nurburgring-Nordschleife, with the region being subjected to heavy rainfall.

Race control decided to start the second section about half an hour later than planned, but the track conditions were still treacherous.

Yelloly, who shares last year's winning #1 BMW M6 GT3 with Nicky Catsburg, John Edwards and Philipp Eng, set a time of 10:01.619s, preventing a sensational pole from the #19 Konrad Lamborghini (Jefferies/di Martino/Zimmermann/Fontana).

The Konrad squad was one of those teams that gambled in the Top Qualifying 2 by bringing in their car for a pit stop after one lap. On fresh rubber Jefferies managed a time of 10m03.927s minutes on a soaked track.

Third place went to Manuel Metzger, who was the very last driver to set a time in the HRT-Mercedes #4. He demoted Jesse Krohn (Schubert-BMW #20) and Nico Bastian in the sister car #6.

Completing the top ten were Raffaele Marciello in the #7 GetSpeed-Mercedes, who settled for just one flying lap, Moritz Kranz in the #9 GetSpeed-Mercedes, Nicki Thiim in the #11 Phoenix-Audi, Julien Andlauer in the #3 Rutronik-Porsche and Max Hesse in the #77 RMG-BMW.

Kranz was also among the drivers who dispensed with one of their two flying laps in favour of a pit stop.

Audi in front in dry Q1 session

Top Qualifying 1, in which four spots for the 20-car pole shootout were up for grabs, started in completely dry conditions. However, there were already signs of what was to come in the form of apocalyptic-looking clouds.

Daniel Keilwitz in the WTM-Ferrari #22 set the first benchmark time with a 8m17.091s, but this was immediately beaten by Augusto Farfus (RMG-BMW #77) with a 8m14.872, the pair split by Dries Vanthoor in the #15 Phoenix Audi.

Farfus' guest appearance at the top was also short-lived, as Maro Engel in the #6 HRT-Mercedes put in a best time of 8m13.664s. After the first round of flying laps, Engel, Farfus, Vanthoor and Marco Mapelli (FFF-Lamborghini #63) thus held the four tickets for Top Qualifying 2.

As many as eleven drivers refrained from their second flyer in view of the impending thunderstorm, including Engel and Mapelli. Vanthoor, however, snatched the top position from Engel with a time of 8m12.319s.

A few moments later it started pouring down on the GP track, causing Charles Espenlaub in the CP-Mercedes #16 to spin due to aquaplaning.

Vanthoor, Engel, Farfus and Mapelli held on to their Top Qualifying 2 spots. Christopher Haase was fifth in the #2 Car Collection Audi, ahead of Keilwitz, Patric Niederhauser in the #24 Lionspeed Audi, Christian Krognes in the #101 Walkenhorst BMW, Connor de Phillippi in the #98 Rowe BMW, and Josh Burdon in the #18 KCMG Porsche.

On Saturday, a one-hour warm-up is scheduled at 11.30am, before the 49th running of the race starts at 3.30pm local time.