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Leuchter claims shock WTCR Nurburgring Nordschleife final pole

Sebastien Loeb Racing Volkswagen driver Benjamin Leuchter claimed a shock pole position for the final Nurburgring Nordschleife World Touring Car Cup race in a breathless end to second qualifying

Leuchter beat the sister VW Golf GTI of Rob Huff to top spot with a fastest time of 9m51.327s, as conditions rapidly improved.

Although the entire field headed out on a full set of wets for their opening laps, most opted to switch to slick front tyres as track conditions improved.

Chief among those that stayed out for a second lap on wets were PWR Cupra driver Daniel Haglof and the Cyan Lynk & Co 03 of Yann Ehrlacher, who shot to the top of the order on their second laps.

But their sector times were quickly improved upon by those who had opted for slicks.

Leuchter and the BRC Racing Hyundai i30 N of Norbert Michelisz went fastest initially but were then split by Huff, before Johan Kristoffersson - who was some way further back on the track in his Golf - beating the previous best benchmark by 4.990 seconds.

Kristoffersson's effort was bettered by wildcard entrant Antti Buri, before Haglof crashed at Tiergarten before the run to the finish line while on course to improve with his final lap, an incident that prompted a 'Code 60' slow zone in the final sector.

But while that cost drivers more than 10 seconds, the amount of time cars were able to find over the rest of the lap meant improvements were still viable.

Michelisz was the first to improve significantly, going fastest by 1.8s, before the VWs hit their stride.

Huff's 9m52.809s sent him fastest ahead of race one polesitter and championship leader Esteban Guerrieri (Munnich Motorsport Honda Civic Type R), only for Leuchter - a Nordschleife expert - to beat that time by 1.482s.

Guerrieri ended up best of the rest behind the two VWs ahead of Michelisz, with the second BRC Hyundai of Gabriele Tarquini beating Mehdi Bennani (SLR VW) to fifth.

Frederic Vervisch was Audi's lead representative in seventh ahead of Attila Tassi, who had been fastest in his KCMG Civic before Michelisz's improvement, while Buri ended up ninth in his Audi RS3 LMS.

Kristoffersson failed to improve on his final lap and was 10th in the fourth of the VWs, ahead of Augusto Farfus and the Comtoyou Cupras of Aurelien Panis and Tom Coronel.

Yann Ehrlacher was the Cyan Racing Lynk & Co outfit's lead representative in 17th, with the sister cars of Andy Priaulx, Thed Bjork and Yvan Muller immediately behind him.

Second qualifying result

Pos Driver Team Car Gap
1 Benjamin Leuchter SLR Volkswagen Volkswagen 9m51.327s
2 Rob Huff SLR VW Motorsport Volkswagen 1.482s
3 Esteban Guerrieri Munnich Motorsport Honda 1.897s
4 Norbert Michelisz BRC Squadra Corse Hyundai 4.098s
5 Gabriele Tarquini BRC Squadra Corse Hyundai 4.247s
6 Mehdi Bennani SLR VW Motorsport Volkswagen 5.697s
7 Frederic Vervisch Comtoyou Audi Audi 5.845s
8 Attila Tassi KCMG Honda 5.905s
9 Antti Buri LMS Racing Audi 5.964s
10 Johan Kristoffersson SLR Volkswagen Volkswagen 6.170s
11 Augusto Farfus BRC Racing Team Hyundai 7.117s
12 Aurelien Panis Comtoyou Cupra Cupra 8.087s
13 Tom Coronel Comtoyou Cupra Cupra 9.449s
14 Tiago Monteiro KCMG Honda 10.500s
15 Jean-Karl Vernay WRT Audi 11.214s
16 Gordon Shedden WRT Audi 11.230s
17 Yann Ehrlacher Cyan Performance Lynk & Co 13.227s
18 Andy Priaulx Cyan Performance Lynk & Co 13.419s
19 Thed Bjork Cyan Racing Lynk & Co 14.188s
20 Yvan Muller Cyan Racing Lynk & Co 15.921s
21 Kevin Ceccon Team Mulsanne Alfa Romeo 17.671s
22 Daniel Haglof PWR Racing Cupra 26.796s
- Nicky Catsburg BRC Racing Team Hyundai 29.898s
- Nestor Girolami Munnich Motorsport Honda 33.941s
- Mikel Azcona PWR Racing Cupra 35.238s
- Niels Langeveld Comtoyou Audi Audi 35.769s
- Ma Qinghua Team Mulsanne Alfa Romeo 47.801s

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