Saturday 25 June 2011

Nürburgring 24 hour race Best Porsche in the fourth grid row





Informacion sobre las 24 Horas/ Porsche Motorsport/ para prensa autorizada y acreditada

Nürburgring 24 hour race
Best Porsche in the fourth grid row


Stuttgart. As the best-placed Porsche team, Porsche works drivers Marc Lieb (Germany), Timo Bernhard (Germany) and Romain Dumas (France) take up the 24 hour race on Saturday with Lucas Luhr (Switzerland) from the fourth grid row. At the wheel of Manthey Racing’s Porsche 911 GT3 R, they concluded the final qualifying for the long distance classic in the Eifel on eighth place.

The further-developed Porsche 911 GT3 R Hybrid (Version 2.0) with drivers Joerg Bergmeister (Germany), Richard Lietz (Austria), Marco Holzer (Germany) and Patrick Long (USA) posted the eleventh quickest time. The Porsche works drivers were able to improve on their first qualifying session by three places, but the gap to the top was just over seven seconds.

On the 16th grid spot are Marc Lieb, Timo Bernhard, Romain Dumas and Lucas Luhr in the Porsche 911 GT3 RSR that the Manthey Racing team fields parallel to the 911 GT3 R. Directly behind them is Porsche factory pilot Wolf Henzler (Germany) as well as Peter Dumbreck (Great Britain), Martin Ragginger (Austria) and Sebastian Asch (Germany) in the Porsche 911 GT3 R of Falken Motorsports on position 17.


Comments from the drivers

Marc Lieb (No. 11/18, Manthey Racing): “I drove the GT3 today but didn’t manage to find an optimal lap because I had to wait too long at the pit lane exit and was therefore too late. All in all I have to say that I couldn’t do much more. But we now have 24 hours ahead of us.”

Timo Bernhard (No. 11/18 Manthey Racing): “I only conducted function tests after changing crucial components like the engine and gearbox. It was all good. The car feels great.”

Romain Dumas (No. 11/18, Manthey Racing): “Our timing wasn’t perfect. When we wanted to push, it started to rain. But we’ve made huge progress in our set-up and that was our main goal for today. It’ll be a long race and anything can happen.”

Joerg Bergmeister (No. 9, Porsche Team Manthey): “We obviously made the right decision and went for top times when it was dry right from the start. It worked and I got in a clear lap. Our car is handling very well.”

Richard Lietz (No. 9, Porsche Team Manthey): “Overnight we changed the engine and gearbox and ran in the new parts. The conditions were quite difficult out there because sections of the track were either dry, damp or wet.”

Wolf Henzler (No. 44, Falken Motorsports): “First we had to run in all the new parts for the race, the engine, gearbox, brake pads and so on. When I wanted to go out for my fast lap it began to rain. At the entrance to the Nordschleife I began to slide on all four wheels and had to abandon my lap. When we tried again towards the end of the session the track was still partly wet and then I encountered a car sideways in front of me and had to brake hard. It’s a shame, I could have done better.”

The 24 hour race takes off on Saturday at 16.00 hours. TV station Sport1 intermittently broadcasts more than 13 hours of the race live on Saturday (from 15.45 hours) and Sunday (17.00 hours). A one-hour highlight programme is televised on Sunday at 22.30 hours.


Result Qualifying
1. Farnbacher/Simonsen/Seefried/Melo (D/MC/D/I), Ferrari F 458, 8:23.764 minutes
2. Mamerow/Hahne/Kaffer (D/D/CH), Mercedes-Benz SLS, + 1.897 seconds
3. Heyer/Jäger/Bleekemolen/Seyffarth (D/D/NL/D), Mercedes-Benz SLS, + 3.016
4. Müller/Werner/Adorf/Lamy (D/D/D/P), BMW M3 GT, + 3.666
5. Müller/Farfus/Alzen/Lamy (D/BRA/D/P), BMW M3 GT, +4.151
6. Arnold/Margaritis/Brück/Frankenhout (D/D/D/NL), Mercedes-Benz SLS, + 4.503
8. Lieb/Luhr/Bernhard/Dumas (D/CH/D/F), Porsche 911 GT3 R, + 5.027
11. Bergmeister/Lietz/Holzer/Long (D/A/D/USA), Porsche 911 GT3 R Hybrid, + 7.087
16. Lieb/Bernhard/Dumas/Luhr (D/D/F/CH), Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, + 8.315
17. Henzler/Dumbreck/Ragginger/Asch (D/GB/A/D), Porsche 911 GT3 R, + 8.485


Public Relations and Media
Motor and Sports Press
Oliver Hilgera

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