Red Bull Team ABT has put a tidy statement on the table ahead of Saturday’s Nürburgring 24 Hours start, locking out the front row in the final, grid-defining Top Qualifying 3 shootout at the Nordschleife.
Luca Engstler delivered pole position with an 8:11.123 on his second lap, a time that held even as the session reached its closing moments and the usual Nürburgring nerves crept in. Marco Mapelli made it a one-two for the ABT squad, improving on his own opening effort but still coming up 0.345s short with an 8:11.468. Around here, that margin isn’t “a few tenths” so much as a chunk of track — enough to be the difference between clean air into Hatzenbach and spending the first stint reading the car ahead.
Top Qualifying 3 also underlined how this event forces teams to think differently about drivers and risk. With the regulations requiring three different drivers across the three Top Qualifying segments, Verstappen Racing’s headline appearance earlier in the format meant it was Daniel Juncadella tasked with the job that actually sets the grid. That’s the bit casual viewers sometimes miss: you can grab attention in the earlier shootouts, but you still need the closer to cash it in when the grid is on the line.
Juncadella did exactly that. His first lap, an 8:18.537, left the Verstappen Racing entry down in ninth of the 12 cars once the opening runs were complete — the kind of number that looks ugly on paper but can be explained quickly at the Nürburgring: traffic, timing, tyres not quite in the window, or a cautious approach while you feel out grip on a track that changes mood corner by corner. When it mattered, he responded with an 8:12.005 on his second lap, jumping the car up to fourth and onto the second row.
That’s a meaningful result in a 24-hour race where nobody wins on Saturday afternoon — but plenty can lose it there. Starting near the front at the Nordschleife matters because it buys you options: less early-lap turbulence, a touch more control over stint shape, and a reduced chance of being dragged into someone else’s incident in the first hour when the field is still bunched and the mirrors are full.
Scherer Sport PHX split the Red Bull pair with Christopher Haase taking third for Audi on an 8:11.984, 0.861s off Engstler’s benchmark. Behind Juncadella, the chasing pack was tightly stacked: the #45 REALIZE KONDO RACING entry with Neubauer in fifth (8:12.221), the #7 Franz Konrad car with Paul in sixth (8:12.256), and then a more visible step back to the HRT Ford Racing cars — Stippler seventh (8:13.676) and Vervisch 12th (8:16.144).
Manthey Racing’s #911 with Preining landed eighth on 8:13.939, while ROWE Racing’s Marciello was ninth (8:14.256), KCMG’s Pittard 10th (8:14.627) and Walkenhorst Motorsport’s Thiim 11th (8:15.250). In other words: a grid that looks respectable right down the order, but with a clear pole-time reference that ABT will be pleased to have established before the race has even begun.
The key takeaway from this final shootout isn’t just that ABT has pace — it’s that they’ve executed the format cleanly. The Nürburgring’s Top Qualifying structure demands a relay-race mentality: hand over a competitive car, avoid mistakes, and trust the next driver to pick up where you left off. ABT’s front-row lockout suggests they’ve got that chain tight, which is exactly what you want heading into 24 hours that will inevitably try to pull everything apart.
As for Verstappen Racing, the headline names may have helped draw the cameras earlier in qualifying, but this result is a reminder of what wins endurance races: depth, discipline and a driver like Juncadella who can absorb a scruffy first run and still find the lap when the stopwatch is about to become permanent.
**Top Qualifying 3 – top 12 (best laps)**
1. Engstler (#84) Red Bull Team ABT – 8:11.123
2. Mapelli (#130) Red Bull Team ABT – 8:11.468 (+0.345)
3. Haase (#16) Scherer Sport PHX – 8:11.984 (+0.861)
4. Juncadella (#3) Winward Racing – 8:12.005 (+0.882)
5. Neubauer (#45) REALIZE KONDO RACING – 8:12.221 (+1.098)
6. Paul (#7) Franz Konrad – 8:12.256 (+1.133)
7. Stippler (#64) HRT Ford Racing – 8:13.676 (+2.553)
8. Preining (#911) Manthey Racing – 8:13.939 (+2.816)
9. Marciello (#1) ROWE RACING – 8:14.256 (+3.133)
10. Pittard (#47) KCMG – 8:14.627 (+3.504)
11. Thiim (#34) Walkenhorst Motorsport – 8:15.250 (+4.127)
12. Vervisch (#67) HRT Ford Racing – 8:16.144 (+5.021)
