Walkenhorst Motorsport led home a 1-2-3 podium lockout for BMW in today’s Nürburgring 24 Hours Qualifying Race, with its #101 BMW M6 of Christian Krognes, Dave Pittard and BMW factory driver Nick Yelloly.

The German team’s big win was sealed late on, Christian Krognes making a late pass on BMW factory driver Jesse Krohn in the #99 ROWE Racing BMW. Works driver Krohn couldn’t fight back and crossed the line 12.6 seconds behind Krognes, after a strong outing with teammate John Edwards during which they led the majority of the race.

Making it a double podium for ROWE Racing, and completing the podium sweep for the Bavarian brand in the six-hour race, was 2017 N24 winner Connor De Philippi, who moved the other ROWE BMW M6 GT3 into a podium spot in the dying moments.

De Philippi, who shared the #98 BMW with Tom Blomqvist and Mikkel Jensen, nabbed third when a steering issue forced Laurens Vanthoor to bring the #911 Manthey Porsche into the pits on the final lap of the race.

The issue meant that Vanthoor and the #911 Manthey crew were one of the 18 cars not classified. This promoted the #31 Frikadelli Porsche of Romain Dumas, Mathieu Jaminet, Matt Campbell and Sven Müller to fourth and the #6 Black Falcon Mercedes, which started from pole but lost the lead on the opening lap, to fifth.

Of the other brands in the SP9 class, the best of the Audi R8 LMS entries was the #4 from Phoenix Racing, which ended up eighth, just ahead of the #39 KCMG Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3.

The only Lamborghini Huracan, the #7 from Konrad Motorsport, came home 12th, the sole-surviving Wochenspiegel Team Monschau Ferrari 488 GT3 (the #11) crossed the line 19th, ahead of the Bandoh Racing Lexus RC F GT3 that took the final space in the top 20.

Elsewhere in the other classes the #705 Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus SCG003C took sixth winning the SP-X class, Thomas Mutsch, Felipe Fernandez-Laser and Franck Mailleux one of 18 crews that finished on the lead lap after 41 tours of the Green Hell.

The highest place GT4 car in the 97-car field, was the #47 Black Falcon Mercedes AMG GT4, which finished 25th overall, winning SP8T.

The smattering of GT4 machines in the race, spread over multiple classes, included many familiar names to DSC readers. The #37 and #36 AMR Performance Centre Vantage AMR GT4s completed the SP8T podium, Darren Turner, Peter Cate and Alex Brundle finishing ahead of Chris Goodwin, Chris Harris and Turner (who drove both Vantages).

A Toyota Gazoo Racing-entered GR Supra also took part, entered in SP8T, but only managed 17 laps and didn’t finish.

The #170 Hyundai Motorsport i30 N TCR won the TCR class by completing 38 laps and finishing an impressive 27th overall.

The 2019 running of the Nurburgring 24 Hours is set to run from 22-23 of June.

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Photo courtesy of Walkenhorst Motorsport