The defending race winner and Max Verstappen were both beaten to top spot by the #80 Ravenol Mercedes in the first qualifying session for the Nurburgring 24 Hours on Thursday afternoon.

A unique and complex qualifying set-up for the Nurburgring 24 Hours means the lead grid positions will be decided on Friday across three 'top qualifying' sessions, but the first of two Thursday qualifying sessions has given some early hints of the pecking order.

Verstappen had driving duties of the #3 Team Verstappen Mercedes for the first two-thirds of the two-hour session.

He was quickly onto the pace and set the early benchmark with an 8m18.539s.

Verstappen was beaten with just over 25 minutes on the clock as 28-year-old Fabian Schiller sent the #80 Mercedes to the top of the timesheet with an 8m14.957s, just shy of 3.6s quicker than the Verstappen entry, which Dani Juncadella, Jules Gounon and Lucas Auer all had brief turns at driving at the end of the session.

BMW factory driver Raffaele Marciello - part of the #1 Rowe Racing entry that won last year's race - also beat Team Verstappen to go second.

A late-session downpour denied anybody else the chance to join them at the front, leaving Team Verstappen third.

The top five was completed by second Rowe Racing BMW, the #99 car, and the #911 Porsche.

First qualifying also featured the first hair-raising incident of the weekend as Alexander Hardt's halted, on-fire #900 Porsche GT3 Cup car was struck by the all-female #146 WS Racing entry with Carrie Schreiner at the wheel.

Porsche 💥 Porsche

Q1 📺 https://t.co/HmPGqAUV4C#IGTC | #24hNBR pic.twitter.com/vp9BJZ2OCj

Hardt was inspecting his car from the grass to the side of the circuit and narrowly avoided being collected.

Qualifying 1 - top 10

1 #80 Mercedes
2 #1 Rowe BMW
3 #3 Team Verstappen Mercedes
4 #99 Rowe BMW
5 #911 Manthey Porsche
6 #130 Team ABT Lamborghini
7 #77 Schubert BMW
8 #64 HRT Ford
9 #16 Scherer Sport PHX Audi
10 #17 Dunlop Porsche