Everything you need to know about Nurburgring 24h qualifying format

At first glance, seeing so many qualifying sessions spread across Thursday and Friday may seem confusing, but the format is specifically designed to ensure a fair distribution of track activity throughout the weekend, especially considering that no fewer than 161 cars will be sharing the enormous German circuit at the same time.

Starting with Thursday’s running, drivers will head out for both Qualifying 1 and Qualifying 2, two sessions designed not only to begin shaping the grid but also to allow competitors to build confidence around the Nordschleife in both daylight and night-time conditions ahead of the race itself. The standard qualifying sessions will ultimately determine the starting order from P50 down to P161, covering all cars outside the top categories such as SP9, SP-PRO, SP-X and AT1. Regardless of their lap times, those entries will not be eligible to advance into the Top Qualifying sessions that decide the fight for the leading grid positions.

For the main classes, Thursday will therefore act mostly as a preparation day ahead of Friday’s decisive sessions. Teams at the front of the field will use the track time to gather data, adapt to the ever-changing conditions around the Nordschleife and fine-tune their cars before the qualifying shootouts that truly matter for the battle at the front.

Friday is when the fight for the overall pole position truly comes alive. A total of 49 cars from the leading categories will enter the Top Qualifying format, while five teams have already guaranteed themselves a direct place in the final shootout after their performances during the NLS Qualifiers earlier in the season.

The qualifying format itself is split into multiple knockout sessions. TQ1 will run for 35 minutes and only the 20 fastest entries will move on to TQ2. From there, the field will be reduced even further, as just seven teams will earn progression into the decisive TQ3 session. The final battle for pole position will therefore feature 12 cars in total: the seven teams advancing from TQ2 combined with the five entries already pre-qualified through the earlier NLS Qualifiers results.

Thursday will feature the opening qualifying sessions, with track action running from 13:15 to 15:15 local time before the second session of the day takes place between 20:00 and 23:30. Friday’s schedule will begin with Top Qualifying 1 from 08:50 to 09:25, followed by Top Qualifying 2 between 09:45 and 10:20. Qualifying 3 is then scheduled from 10:35 to 11:50, while Top Qualifying 3 will close the day between 13:35 and 14:35.

On Saturday, the warm-up session will run from 10:00 to 11:00. Starting procedures are scheduled for 12:45, followed by the formation lap at 14:40 and the official race start at 15:00 local time. The chequered flag will then fall on Sunday at 15:00.