While the track was still dry, Augusto Farfus had put the BMW Junior Team in a position to battle for the top ten by recording the third-fastest time in the first part of Top Qualifying, thereby qualifying for the top 20 shootout. Hesse then held his nerve as stormy weather led to extremely challenging track conditions.
 
The session went even better for Yelloly, who coped best with the conditions to lap more than two seconds faster than the second-placed car. A strong performance in the individual time trial put Krohn in third place for some time, but he was still pleased to finish fourth and secure a spot on the second row of the grid.
 
The Walkenhorst Motorsport #100 car competing in the Pro-Am class had also made it into Top Qualifying 2, but chose not to appear for safety reasons and was classified in 20th position. The Walkenhorst Motorsport #101 BMW M6 GT3, the #98 BMW M6 GT3 from ROWE Racing and the Walkenhorst Motorsport #102 BMW M6 GT3 will start the race from 24th, 25th and 30th positions.

The 30 minutes leading up to the first of the two Top Qualifying sessions were dominated by memories of the recently deceased Nürburgring legend Sabine Schmitz. Johannes Scheid, who won the 24-hour race together with Schmitz in 1996 and 1997 at the wheel of the BMW M3 ‘Eifelblitz’, completed a lap of honour around the Nordschleife in a replica of the winning car from 1996. It started in the pit lane, accompanied by applause from the other teams and drivers, who emerged from their pit areas to form a guard of honour for the ‘Eifelblitz’. “It was very emotional to first see everyone in the pit lane and then the track marshals along the circuit, who had even made their own banners,” said Scheid after his lap. “I said to Sabine: ‘They are all there for you’. It was very moving. It still gives me a chill just to think about it. We owed it to her and I think it is fantastic that BMW made it possible.”

“The conditions for qualifying today were extremely difficult and we are very pleased with the BMW performance. Last year’s winners ROWE Racing and Nick Yelloly in pole position after an outstanding display of driving, Jesse Krohn in fourth place in the BMW M6 GT3 from Schubert Motorsport and Max Hesse in the BMW Junior Team car, which Augusto Farfus got out of Q1 and into Q2, in tenth position – that was a superb performance. But that is just the beginning. We have a very long race ahead of us, and it will all be about making a few errors as possible. Today, the Nordschleife has already shown that you can always expect unpredictable weather conditions and it will be no different tomorrow. And you have to consider the strength of the competition. We have a mature and reliable car in the form of the BMW M6 GT3, we have very good teams and we have very good drivers. Together, we will attempt to get the very best out of this. We are looking forward to this race.“

“I am very, very happy to bring that pole home for BMW. Obviously after last year’s event, when we managed to win, to start off like this is just superb. I couldn’t picture a better start to the weekend. It was pretty tricky and slippery out there but it worked out. Now it’s all about focusing for the race. We know that it is going to be mixed conditions so we have to be very good and on top of our game in terms of calling the right pit strategy and tyre choice. But the team were amazing, as were BMW, last year in doing so, so there is no reason why we can’t do it again.”