24 Hours of Nürburgring End of Race

NUR24SRO

Jun 2

Since the 52nd ADAC RAVENOL 24h Nürburgring (N24) was red-flagged at 11:23 pm Saturday, Race Direction gave the spectators a new “rendez-vous” at 7am for a potential re-start of the race depending on weather conditions. A “New Point” was postponed every hour, then every 1/2 hour but the fog remained quite dense on the Grand Prix track. At 1pm, Race Direction called all remaining participants to be back on track for a restart at 1:30 behind safety car in 3 groups as usual. The plan was for five formation laps behind the safety car, after which race control would determine whether or not the race could be completed to the full extent.

Cars re-ordered

Many of us were surprised to see the “Grello” ahead of the #72 BMW M4 GT3 as the latter was second when the race was stopped. Logically the cars were re-ordered based on the standings of the race in the lap in which the class leader had crossed the finish line for the penultimate time before the red flag AND an even number of pit stops. As the #72 RMG BMW had 7 pit stops at the penultimate time before versus 8 for the leader and the #911 Manthey EMA Porsche, the time of pit stop was added to the #72 BMW who thereby became third.

The top 6 for the re-start were as follow:

#16 Audi with Stippler, Mies, Feller, Marschall 7:15:24.334 #911 Porsche with Vanthoor, Preining, Estre, Güven 7:15:43.297

#72 BMW with Harper, Hesse, Weerts 7:16:05.593 #4 Mercedes with Stolz, Götz, Juncadella Perez-Sala, Maini 7:16:05.801

#27 Lamborghini with Van der Linde, Mapelli, Pepper 7:16:39.453 #1 Ferrari with Fernandez Laser, Keilwitz, Ludwig, Varrone 7:17:45.356

Scherer Sport PHX wins shortest-ever N24

At the end of the fifth formation lap, weather conditions didn’t allow for the race to continue hence the victory of the #16 Scherer Sport PHX Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II with Frank Stippler and Christopher Mies who clinch their third N24 victory together with Ricardo Feller and Dennis Marschall who increase the list of 24 Hours of Nürburgring’s one time winners.

50 laps of racing for #16 Audi to win the 52nd ADAC RAVENOL 24h Nürburgring.

Second victory for Manthey EMA Porsche in Intercontinental GT Challenge (IGTC)

#911 Manthey EMA Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) with Vanthoor, Preining, Estre, Güven are second, 0.603 sec. behind the winners.

For the first time, the Nürburgring 24-hour race was also part of the Intercontinental GT Challenge (IGTC). In this separate classification, the #911 entry clinched victory. Manthey EMA had won the 12-hour race of the IGTC in Bathurst, Australia, in February. Thanks to this, Porsche extended its lead in the manufacturers’ standings. Laurens Vanthoor and the former Porsche Junior Ayhancan Güven are increasing their leadership in the drivers championship.

Ayhancan Güven (TR, Manthey EMA, Porsche 911 GT3 R #911): “I can completely understand the race director’s decision – continuing under these conditions would’ve been too dangerous. We fought for the lead from the start and were almost always among the top three. Unfortunately, we weren’t in first place when the red flag came out. Obviously, we wanted to win, but I’m still happy with our result.” Source: Porsche

5 manufacturers in the top 5

#72 RMG BMW M4 GT3 driven by Dan Harper, Max Hesse and Charles Weerts end on the podium, 4.796 sec. behind the #911 Porsche.

Max Hesse (#72 BMW M4 GT3, BMW M Team RMG): “I have mixed feelings. Of course, we are super happy that we finished and are on the podium with P3. We would have liked to make more use of our pace, but we couldn't race again today, although it must be said that we were a bit lucky because other cars went to the pits. If it had been a green flag, it might have been difficult for us with the fuel but we are on the podium, although of course, we would have liked to have landed two steps higher.”

Dan Harper (#72 BMW M4 GT3, BMW M Team RMG): “P3 in the 24h Nürburgring, I think it’s an amazing result for us. It has been the first time with Charles as part of the team. It was fantastic to be back with BMW M Team RMG; we have been competitive the whole week and been at the front. BMW M Team RMG and BMW M Motorsport gave us an amazing car It’s a shame with the conditions as the race was stopped for most of the time and we could not really get back racing. But we came away with the podium and it’s a great feeling.”

Charles Weerts (#72 BMW M4 GT3, BMW M Team RMG): “I’m very happy to finish third in my first ever 24h Nürburgring on the Nordschleife. If I would have known this before I would have been of course extremely happy. It was quite a special race with a lot of time under the red flag which is not something we want to have as a racer and as the spectators, but today it was safety first and it was probably the right call. We don’t know how the race would have finished without the red flag. We could have won it, maybe we would not have been on the podium. Now we finished third, a big thank you to BMW M Motorsport, to BMW M Team RMG and to my team-mates who were incredible during the whole weekend.” Source: BMW Group

#4 Mercedes-AMG Team HRT Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO driven by Luca Stolz, Maximilian Götz, Daniel Juncadella Perez-Sala end fourth, 0.247 sec. behind the #72 BMW.

Kelvin van der Linde, Marco Mapelli and Jordan Pepper with the #27 Red Bull Team ABT Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 round the top 5..

#33 Falken Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R driven by Julien Andlauer, Klaus Bachler, Sven Müller and Alessio Picariello ended sixth.

The ROWE Racing #98 BMW M4 GT3 driven by Raffaele Marciello, Marco Wittmann, Maxime Martin and Augusto Farfus was classified in seventh position.

The second Scherer Sport PHX Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II driven by Frederic Vervisch, Christopher Haase, Markus Winkelhock Markus and Ricardo Feller ended 8th.

The #24 Lionspeed GP Porsche 911 GT3 R driven by Antares Au, Patric Niederhauser, Patrick Kolb and Indy Dontje ended 9th and win the SP9 Pro-Am class.