Kelvin van der Linde set the fastest time of the session on his first flying lap in the #1 Audi R8 LMS, posting a 8m18.914s on one of the few clear laps during the session - enough to beat Jeroen Bleekemolen in the #11 AutoArena Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 by 0.379s.

Much of the three-hour session was affected by slow zones due to several incidents on the 25km track.

Jordan Tresson was one of the major casualties during the night qualifying session, as the Frenchman, driving the #101 Walkenhorst BMW M6 GT3, crashed in the run down from Fuchrohre to Adenauer Forst and caused a lengthy slow zone.

Tresson was released from the medical centre after the shunt but BMW Motorsport reported that the car was “heavily damaged” during the shunt.

With only half an hour left, the track was clear for some time, and Mike Rockenfeller took advantage to post the third-fastest time of the session in the #24 BWT Audi, 0.488s slower than Mies.

Jorg Bergmeister had set a fast lap in the first part of the session in the #17 Team75 Bernhard Porsche 911 GT3 R and was demoted to fourth in the last few minutes of the session.

Pierre Kaffer posted the fifth-fastest time in the #15 Car Collection Motorsport Audi, while the #6 Black Falcon Mercedes was the final car to get within a second of Mies's benchmark.

The best of the BMW runners was ROWE Racing's #99 car in 12th place, which was over five seconds adrift of provisional pole with Alexander Sims at the wheel.

Qualifying continues on Friday with a second two-hour session under daylight, before a top-30 shootout is held later in the evening.

Pos.	#	Class	Driver/Codriver	Car	Time	Gap
1	1	SP9	René Rast   Christopher Mies   Kelvin van der Linde   Sheldon Van Der Linde	Audi R8 LMS	8'18.914
2	11	SP9	Raffaele Marciello   Jeroen Bleekemolen   Clemens Schmid   Patrick Assenheimer	Mercedes-AMG GT3	8'19.293	0.379
3	24	SP9	Markus Winkelhock   Mike Rockenfeller   Christopher Haase   Nico Müller	Audi R8 LMS	8'19.402	0.488
4	17	SP9	Andre Lotterer   Michael Christensen   Jörg Bergmeister   Matteo Cairoli	Porsche GT3 R	8'19.404	0.490
5	15	SP9	Simon Trummer   Pierre Kaffer   Adrien de Leener	Audi R8 LMS GT3	8'19.466	0.552
6	6	SP9	Abdulaziz Al Faisal   Hubert Haupt   Gabriele Piana   Erik Johansson	Mercedes-AMG GT3	8'19.658	0.744
7	3	SP9	Frank Stippler   Christopher Haase   Nico Müller   Frederic Vervisch	Audi R8 LMS GT3	8'20.739	1.825
8	12	SP9	Otto Klohs   Lars Kern    Dennis Olsen   Philipp Frommenwiler	Porsche 911 GT3 R	8'20.991	2.077
9	25	SP9	Marcel Fassler   Stefan Mücke   Pierre Kaffer   Christer Jöns	Audi R8 LMS	8'21.520	2.606
10	912	SP9	Nick Tandy   Richard Lietz   Patrick Pilet   Frédéric Makowiecki	Porsche 911 GT3 R	8'22.248	3.334