Max Verstappen ticked off a crucial milestone in the second qualifying practice session at the Nürburgring.
When the run commenced at 8 pm local time [7 pm BST], the drivers and teams were faced with very different conditions than earlier in the day as heavy rain swept the circuit, leading to very different lap times.
Kevin Estre started with purple sectors in the #911 Manthey Porsche and was the fastest in the treacherous conditions, while Lucas Auer started on behalf of Team Verstappen with a 10:08.131s.
As the session progressed, lap times improved marginally. Auer handed the wheel over to Jules Gounon after half an hour, with a fastest time of 9:51.566s on the clock, 16 seconds adrift at that stage of Klaus Bachler in the #44 Falken Motorsports Porsche.
Gounon then recorded a 9:44.949s for Team Verstappen, six seconds faster than Auer, before making way for Dani Juncadella, who recorded a 9:34.713s, ahead of what proved to be a long spell in the garage for the bulk of the teams as torrential rain fell.
That was not ideal for four-time F1 champion Verstappen as regulations dictate all drivers must complete at least one lap at night, no matter the weather.
When Verstappen did opt to venture out, the track was still considerably wet, forcing him to tiptoe around his solitary lap before returning to the garage, but he at least ticked a mandated box.
In terms of overall lap times, understandably, there were no improvements compared to the times earlier in the day, but for all the drivers, they at least gained experience in the dark and on a wet track.
The leading lap was set by the #1 Rowe Racing BMW with a 9:19.884s.
It left the #80 Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Mercedes-AMG Team RAVENOL topping the timesheet from the afternoon session, with the #3 Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Team Verstappen in third place.
A remarkable 160 teams entered the Thursday qualifying practice sessions. The leading 49 now go through to what is known as Top Qualifying on Friday, with the remainder occupying slots 50 to the back of the grid.
Top Qualifying incorporates three sessions for the remaining 49 teams, with the fastest 20 progressing through to the second session, and from there, the leading 12 fight for pole in the final run.
Barring an incident, Verstappen Racing is fully expected to reach the final Top Qualifying session.
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