Top-30 shoot-out: ROWE Racing starts the long-distance classic in the Eifel mountains inside the top-ten.

Nürburgring. Jesse Krohn (FIN) set the fastest lap of all BMW drivers during the shoot-out for pole position at the Nürburgring 24 Hours (GER). With his best lap time of 8:11.546 minutes, he secured tenth place on the grid in the #99 ROWE Racing BMW M6 GT3. John Edwards (USA) finished the session 14^th in the #98 ROWE Racing sister car. Augusto Farfus (BRA) was 18^th in the #102 Shell Helix BMW M6 GT3, and Jens Klingmann (GER) came home 21^st in the #33 Falken Motorsports BMW M6 GT3. The Walkenhorst Motorsport BMW Z4 GT3 also made it into the shoot-out where Peter Posavac (GER) finished the session in 30^th position. BMW Motorsport Juniors Beitske Visser (NED) and Nico Menzel (GER), sharing the BMW M4 GT4 with Dirk Adorf (GER) and Tom Coronel (NED), will go into the race from 59^th place. Pole position went to Porsche. The race will start at 15:30 on Saturday.

Reactions to the top-30 shoot-out at the Nürburgring:

Jesse Krohn (#99 BMW M6 GT3, ROWE Racing, grid position: 10 ):

“It was an alright session and I’m happy with my lap but I’m also surprised with the qualifying pace. I gave it my ‘all’ but, on one-lap pace, we didn’t quite have it. The team did a great job and the car felt mega, so hopefully we can have a good race and stay out of trouble.”

John Edwards (#98 BMW M6 GT3, ROWE Racing, grid position: 14):

“The BMW M6 GT3 felt really great but I’m very surprised by the lap times of the other manufacturers – they are so quick. It’s a 24 hour race so starting places aren’t too important – the important thing is that the car feels good.”

Augusto Farfus (#102 Shell Helix BMW M6 GT3, grid position: 18 ):

“It was a clean qualifying and we did a good job. Of course, the race is long but we have a very good line-up and a very good team so I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”

Jens Klingmann (#33 BMW M6 GT3, Falken Motorsports, grid position: 21):

“We qualified P21, which doesn’t sound great but that doesn’t tell the full story. Our car is great on tyres so the last lap of our stint is almost as quick as our first lap – this means there is no peak for qualifying but that we have a fantastic long distance race set-up.”

An overview of the driver line-ups in selected BMW cars:

#98 BMW M6 GT3:

Tom Blomqvist (GBR)

Nick Catsburg (NED)

John Edwards (USA)

Richard Westbrook (GBR)

#99 BMW M6 GT3:

Connor De Phillippi (USA)

Jesse Krohn (FIN)

Alexander Sims (GBR)

Martin Tomczyk (GER)

#102 BMW M6 GT3:

Augusto Farfus (BRA)

Christian Krognes (NOR)

Markus Palttala (FIN)

Fabian Schiller (GER)

#33 BMW M6 GT3:

Peter Dumbreck (GBR)

Stef Dusseldorp (NED)

Alexandre Imperatori (SUI)

Jens Klingmann (GER)

#100 BMW Z4 GT3:

Rudi Adams (GER)

Alex Lambertz (GER)

Jörg Müller (GER)

Peter Posavac (GER)

#60 BMW M4 GT4:

Dirk Adorf (GER)

Tom Coronel (NED)

Nico Menzel (GER)

Beitske Visser (NED)