Nurburgring 24hr – Sunday Morning Leaders

08:30 local time & Pilet brings the Manthey Porsche in for a scheduled stop with allows Nico Müller back into the lead. The two cars swapping 2 minute leads and pitting 3 laps apart.

The Aston Martin #007 was still in 3rd but the Land Audi was getting ever closer.
Lap times were in the 9:30s at this stage of the race but there were still question marks over what the weather was going to do for the rest of Sunday.

#22 Ferrari was continuing apace battling for a top 10 position with the Falken Porsche & Glickenhaus.

A definitive dry line has appeared on the GP loop, but the rest of the track most definitely wet.

Van Der Linde took advantage of the pit sequence to get his Audi past the Aston Martin and into 3rd, but the gap to the lead duo still quite a way.
Today was a really solid showing for the Glickenhaus, but it was not to be – Jeff Westphal clattered into the wall and the car now sits in the garage. The Renault RS01 gifted the class win so long as they keep running.

Scuderia Glickenhaus #705
Photo: Gruppe C Photography

It has been a mixed bag so far for the Renault RS01, moments of real promise but ultimately the car just not able to live up to the speed of previous years; still running at 09:30 but only just inside the top 20.

#17 Bernhard Porsche, #30 Frikadelli & the #007 Aston Martin all decide to roll the dice, coming in after 6 laps and going to full slick tyres – looking at onboards from around the track, we can see several cars still using the windscreen wipers on the Nordschleife… 2 laps later and the rain returned.

The leader astounds everybody by going on to do a 9 lap stint – the Black Falcon #4 not having done this at all so far.

3rd place Audi in the wall –Kelvin van der Linde a bit too eager on the loud pedal, a quick slide and the car just pitched into the barrier just before Hohe Acht.

Possibly the decision of the race… the #912 speeding in a slow zone has been given a 3 minute penalty; but Fred Makowiecki up to 15 seconds a lap faster than the #4 Mercedes.

Manthey-Racing, Porsche 911 GT3 R (911), Kevin Estre (F), Romain Dumas (F), Laurens Vanthoor (B), Earl Bamber (NZ),

And just to add more spice… fog is reported at Schwalbenschwanz.

#24 Pink Audi looped through the gravel at Ravenol-Kurve but continued seemingly undamaged.

More problems for the #1 Audi, Chris Mies behind the wheel this time and the car again going across the grass and making contact with Armco .

#912 Manthey comes in to take the penalty & refuel, handing the lead back to Maro Engel’s Mercedes with a lead of 4:25 to overcome in under 4 hours.

Falken Porsche #4
Photo: VLN

As the clock strikes 12:00, the race director deemed the fog too bad and a red flag was called
3 and a half hours left, hopefully we can get some more racing this afternoon… *UPDATE* Cars released from the pits to grid up again at 13:15 (race must end at 15:30)

Image © Sam Pierce @CLRSam

Related Posts