Manthey Racing wins a very wet VLN3 race – a 1-2-3 finish destroyed by a penalty given after the race

After the weather conditions at the Nürburgring already had badly affected VLN1 and VLN2, VLN3 finally was finally a complete 4hours race – however, it still was a tricky race again, due to the weather situation. After a few laps, already anticipated heavy rain kicked in, making it a very difficult race for the drivers. Just after a few laps, the GT3 field and other classes saw some reduction of cars, with quite some sliding and spinning one the wet track and hitting the barriers.

VLN3 2019 Manthey, Photo: Swoosh Motorsport Communications / Stefan Schneider

Manthey Racing’s Porsches seemed to have been best suited to cope with these conditions. When the checkered flag came out, the Manthey Porsche #912 (“Greeno”) with Richard Lietz and Nick Tandy crossed the finish line as overall classification winners, followed by the Manthey Porsche #911 (“Grello”) with drivers Michael Christensen and Kévin Estre, and in third place arrived the Manthey Porsche #12 with Otto Klohs and Dennis Olsen.

VLN3 2019 Manthey Porsche #12, Photo: Swoosh Motorsport Communications / Stefan Schneider

However, as it turned out, the Manthey Racing Team had done a mistake with refuelling #911 at one of the pit stops, putting more gasoline in the fuel tank than what had been allowed. The car was given a 15 seconds penalty, and hence lost 2 positions and the podium place. Manthey’s car #12 was moved up to second, and the Black Falcon Team’s Mercedes AMG GT3 #14 (Adam Christodoulou, Maro Engel, Manuel Metzger and Dirk Müller) gained a podium position as third in the overall classification.

VLN3 2019, Black Falcon Mercedes AMG GT3,
Photo: Swoosh Motorsport Communications / Stefan Schneider

The VLN Endurance Championship will now enter into a break, as the 24 Hours Nürburgring Qualification Race and the 24 Hours Nürburgring Race will take place in May and June, respectively. VLN will resume with VLN4 in July.

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