Manthey Racing wins Nürburgring 24 Hours

Marc Lieb, Lucas Luhr, Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas managed to maintain their lead in the thirteenth hour but behind the #18 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR the battle for second place heated up with the Heico Motorsport Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 #32, the Audi Sport Team Phoenix Audi R8 LMS #15 and the #1 BMW M3 GT. The #36 Mamerow Mercedes crashed out of the race at the Niki Lauda-Kurve.

Due to the crash of the BMW Z4 GT3 #76 and the #24 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 the crash site was a construction area for several hours and it would take until 6 am before it the yellow flags were gone again at the scene of the incident.

In the meantime the BMW M3 GT #1 of Jörg Müller, Augusto Farfus, Uwe Alzen and Pedro Lamy was pushing and managed to get back into second position overall in the fifteenth hour. The gap to the leading Manthey Racing Porsche had grown though with the Heico Motorsport Mercedes now third at almost a minute from the leaders – having been hit by a car earlier in the race casing some damage.

Need for Speed Team Schubert lost another car when the #77 BMW Z4 GT3 tangled with the #141 Seat Leon. The maneuver launched the BMW onto the barrier and into the catch fence. The car landed upside down and was an immediate retirement. With the barriers and catchfence damaged the scene of the accident was turned into a construction zone again and the race continued with both drivers uninjured. An unharmful spin for the #32 Mercedes meant a short delay, but gave the BMW the chance to pull further away from it.

At 9 o’clock, after completing 109 laps, the gap between the Porsche and the Mercedes-Benz was 4 minutes and 10 seconds, the BMW a further minute behind.

The Porsche 911 GT3 R Hybrid was the next car to hit trouble after an apparent accident with a Renault Clio RS at Schwedenkreuz, the car returned to the pit and lost more valuable time in the pit box while being fixed. Unfortunately for Schubert Motorsport their day was over just before 10:30, when Marko Hartung parked the #4 BMW Z4 GT3 with a driveshaft failure.

After 19 hours of racing the top three was unchanged, with Manthey Racing leading the BMW Motorsport BMW M3 GT by just under 5,5 minutes and the Heico Motorsport Mercedes following some three minutes behind.

The top three remained the same over the following laps – with just the cars further down the field going off or spinning. With some three and a half hours left the #32 cars spun again, allowing the Audi’s behind to closin rapidly. The #8 Haribo Manthey Porsche – expected to race in the Spa 24 Hours as well – suffered a small fire after damaging the exhaust and damage to the rear. It returned to the track later on.

With just over two hours left the gap between the two leaders was still some 4,5 minutes, but behind them the Mercedes-Benz #32 and the #14 Audi Sport Team Phoenix Audi R8 LMS had found each other and fought for third overall. At the end of the lap(the 142nd) the Audi seemed to make it, but then came into the pit.

After 143 laps the #18 Porsche was 4:20.483 ahead of the #1 BMW M3 GT and another 3:02.007 over the #32 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3. Behind it were three Audi R8 LMS, although the #16 had yet to come in for a one-minute stop & go.

Unfortunately for the Heico Motorsport team their hopes for a podium finish vanished when the #32 Mercedes-Benz came in and was pushed into the box. Work immediately started on the rear of the car, but as the car was stuck in the pit lane Audi’s #14 and #15 passed it. With just over 22 minutes left it returned to the track, but it had already dropped to seventh overall. Two cars remained on the lead lap – the gap between the Porsche and BMW still over four minutes.

In the remaining minutes the Manthey Racing Porsches got into formation and after completing 156 laps – a new distance record – the #18 Manthey Racing Porsche 911 GT3 RSR crossed the line to secure another victory for Manthey Racing and Porsche Motorsport. Due to the slow formation lap the #1 BMW Motorsport BMW M3 managed to close the gap from 4 minutes and 50 seconds to 4 minutes and 23 seconds. Audi Sport Team Phoenix secured the final podium place in the last hour.