Team RJN left the Nürburgring with a headline no one else in the paddock could claim. In qualifying for the fourth round of the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup, Ben Dörr put the #23 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo round the Grand Prix circuit in 1:53.070, the fastest GT3 lap ever recorded at the track.
A lap for the record books
Endurance Cup qualifying is split into three segments, one per driver, and the grid is set by the average of all three. Ben took the final segment and went straight to the top of the timesheet.
His 1:53.070 was the fastest lap of the entire qualifying session, 0.184 seconds clear of the #17 Mercedes-AMG Team GetSpeed and quicker than anything set in the first two segments. No GT3 car has ever lapped the Nürburgring GP circuit faster.
Max Lynn and Horatio Fitz-Simon, both in their first season of GT3 racing, ran the opening two segments with a 1:55.298 and a 1:55.120. Pole position on the combined average went to Comtoyou Racing.
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Three hours, full distance
Several safety car periods shaped a tense three hours in the Eifel. The #23 crew kept the McLaren clean through every restart and completed the full 83-lap distance on the lead lap, crossing the line 39th overall and ninth in the Silver Cup. The car's best race lap, a 1:56.480, was within a quarter of a second of the fastest lap of the race.
Comtoyou Racing's #7 Aston Martin of Mattia Drudi, Marco Sørensen and Nicki Thiim took the win, ahead of Team WRT's #32 BMW and the #3 Mercedes-AMG Team Verstappen Racing. In the Silver Cup, Team WRT's #30 crew sealed the class title.
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The numbers
Qualifying 3: P1, 1:53.070 (Ben Dörr), fastest lap of qualifying
Race: P39 overall, P9 Silver Cup
Distance: 83 of 83 laps, on the lead lap
Best race lap: 1:56.480
Silver Cup points: 2
Next up: Portimão
The Endurance Cup season finishes at the Algarve International Circuit from 16 to 18 October, with the three-hour race on Saturday 17 October at 17:00 (17:00 UK time). You can add it to your calendar from the countdown on our homepage, and follow the build-up on Instagram at @team.rjn.
Before publishing
Fill the two quote placeholders. A line from Ben on the lap is what journalists and sponsors will lift. The team principal's quote needs their name and title, which I don't have.
Add a featured image. A shot of the #23 at the Nürburgring works best. It shows on the News page, the homepage news section and when the link is shared. Wide 16:9 at around 1600 × 900.
Replace your Sitewide code with the file above. It links the Nürburgring result on the homepage and calendar to this report, as long as the URL slug is set as shown.
One judgement call: "fastest GT3 lap ever" is the team's claim. The official timing confirms it was the fastest lap of the weekend's qualifying, but it doesn't publish all-time comparisons. If a journalist asks, it's worth having the previous best to hand.
