The second and third hours brought quite a lot of action to the 43rd ADAC Zurich 24h-Race leader board, with six changes in the lead. Due to a rain shower, several cars entertained the crowds with unusual but spectacular power slides. The first prominent early retirement was Team Zakspeed following an off-track moment of their Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 (#27), as the car was frayed beyond repair, in the incident. “Our car is damaged that seriously that continuing the race just wouldn’t make sense,” said Team Principal Peter Zakowski. Meanwhile, other teams don’t even shy away from changing the engine – such as Team Click vers.de on their Porsche 911 GT3 (#69). With three hours and 20 laps contested, the Black Falcon Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 (#5) holds the lead., with its tiny lead over the second-placed BMW Sports Trophy Team Marc VDS BMW Z4 GT3 (#26) amounting to 0.171 seconds. Third place is held by the Frikadelli Racing Team Porsche 911 GT3 R (#30).
2 – Buurman / Simonsen / Christodoulou / Schneider (Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3)
17:47hrs
Collision of #2 and #9 in the Eschbach area. Both can continue without problems.
18:01hrs
Slight collision with the Audi TT #112 at the Aremberg exit.
5 – Bin Turki Al Faisal / Haupt / Buurman / van Lagen (Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3)
17:29hrs
Leads, followed by the BMW #26. the gap between the cars amounts to just 0.491 seconds.
18:15hrs
pot stop. Is shod with new slicks, Hubert Haupt for Yelmer Buurman.
18:47hrs
Passes the MarcVDS-BMW (#26) in the Zurich-Z for the lead. .
18:57hrs
Abdulaziz Bin Turki Al Faisal: In about an hour I’m going to take over from Hubert and I hope that we still will be the leaders, then. And who knows if I won’t be able to even extend this lead. 10 – Weiss / Kainz / Krumbach / Christensen (Porsche 911 GT3 RSR)
18:30hrs
Changes from wets to slicks. Driver swap: Christensen for Krumbach.
11 – Primat / Brück / Schmid / Seefried (Bentley Continental GT3)
17:52hrs
Pits for wets.
13 – Dittmann / Albrecht / Lachmayer / Schall (Chrysler (Dodge) Viper)
17:16hrs
Cruises slowly in the Pflanzgarten area.
16 – Busch / Busch / Frankenhout (Audi R8 LMS ultra)
17:40hrs
Pit stop for wets.
18:48hrs
Driver swap: Christiaan Frankenhout for Dennis Busch.
19 – Müller / Sims / Werner / Wittmann (BMW Z4 GT3)
17:01hrs
Scheduled pit stop of the leaders.
17:12hrs
Dirk Müller replaces Dirk Werner. Werner: “I had a lot of fun, out there. The opening stages were really exciting. I could pass the Mercedes in turn two and from that point in time we contested the first stint as synchronised triplets. What a great stint!
18:20hrs
Dirk Müller: “Actually I was supposed to complete just a normal stint but as I had such a nice battle for the lead we spontaneously decided that I should stay in the car. Driving in the rain was really difficult and I’m happy that I brought the car back to the pits without any damages.”
20 – Baumann / Hürtgen / Klingmann / Tomczyk (BMW Z4 GT3)
17:39hrs
The Schubert BMW Z4 that held the lead for quite a while suffers a suspension damage in the Döttinger Höhe section. Pits and is pushed into the garage right away.
17:46hrs
Claudia Hürtgen: “It was raining. In the Pflanzgarten area, I jumped over the tip and went aslant when landing. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get the car under control again. It arguably will take us another hour before we will be able to rejoin the race.
21 – Schulze / Schulze / Strauß / Tresson (Nissan GT-R nismo GT3)
17:11hrs
Pit stop, driver swap: Florian Strauß for M. Schulze. Schulze: “I made a good start and tried to stay in my group. And I succeeded in doing so until I came in for the driver swap.”
18:44hrs
Rejoins the race after repair works. The belt of the servo pump had disengaged.
18:50hrs
Is towed off the track in the Breidscheid area.
23 – Graf / Hohenadel / Bastian / Jäger (Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3)
18:10hrs
Pits. Slight front damage is mended with race tape.
18:59hrs
Nico Bastian: “I’m going to take over after this stint. But things aren’t running too well for us. In the opening stages, when the car in front of him had to brake, Christian gut into a sandwich. He was hit from behind and the front was damaged too. Now we have to pit again and again to work on the damage.” Currently, the car is driven by Thomas Jäger.
25 – Martin / Luhr / Palttala / Westbrock (BMW Z4 GT3)
17:16hrs
Richard Westbrook for Lucas Luhr.
17:23hrs
Lucas Luhr: Compared to the chaotic conditions in 2014, this year’s opening stages were very quiet. I didn’t take any risks and the car is running superbly. I wouldn’t mind if things continued like this.”
18:00hrs
Pit stop: the team switches two wets, Westbrook remains at the wheel.
26 – Farfus / Müller / Catsburg / Adorf (BMW Z4 GT3)
17:37hr
Dirk Adorf already is waiting to take over when the car comes in for the next stop.
17:58hrs
Change in the lead: Der MarcVDS-BMW is back in the lead, with the Black-Falcon-Mercedes #5 following in second position.
18:07hrs
Dirk Adorf takes over. Back to slicks.
27 – Asch / Coronel / Ludwig / Vietoris (Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3)
17:20hrs
Stands on the green area next to the track, with the front pointing to the wrong direction.
17:32hrs
Christian Vietoris: “I was pushed onto the
grass while overtaking and hit
the crash barriers.” Team Principal Peter Zakowski:
“The steering and the suspension of the right front wheel are damaged. We hope that we will be able to continue.
17:50hrs
Peter Zakowski: “The damages on our car are so massive that continuing doesn’t make sense. The repair time would be far too long. At the right front, everything is broken: suspension, steering, body…”
28 – Mies / Sandström / Müller / Vanthoor (Audi R8 LMS)
17:12hrs
Fire during the refuelling. Christopher Mies jumps out of the car but a short time later, the works can be continued.
30 – Schmitz / Huisman / Pilet / Bergmeister (Porsche 911 GT3 R)
17:17hrs
Driver swap: Patrick Pilet for Patrick Huisman.
18:07hrs
With 8:53.561 minute on the previous lap the clearly fastest car in the field.
18:22hrs
On lap 15, Pilet once again outpaces the entire field by several seconds.
The lead over the Phoenix Audi #1 now adds up to 39.9 seconds.
18:42hrs
Scheduled pit stop for race leader Patrick Pilet.
18:43hrs
Jörg Bergmeister is supposed to take over. Bergmeister: “I will drive for the first time in dry conditions and am looking forward to it. You couldn’t expect that we would get in such a good position. I will give my very best to continue on this level.
31 – Schmidt / Mattschull / Ehret / Rice (Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3)
18:43hrs
Slicks for intermediates.
35 – Buncombe / Hoshino / Krumm / Ordonez (Nissan GT-R nismo GT3)
17:12hrs
Alex Buncombe for Michael Krumm.
17:18hrs
Team Principal Bob Neville: “We start into the race with a conservative approach, without trying to push. Everything is fine.
18:47hrs
Driver swap: Lucas Ordonez for Alexander Buncombe. Buncombe: “We deliberately opted for slicks. Yes, I had to back off in several sections, thus losing some time but I could easily make up for these losses in other sections. I don’t know what the other teams are doing but we will stick to this strategy.”
44 – Dumbreck / Henzler / Ragginger / Imperatori (Porsche 911 GT3 R)
17:08hrs
Wolf Henzler for Martin Ragginger.
17:30hrs
Off-track moment into the gravel in the Aremberg area.
18:24hrs
Peter Dumbreck for Wolf Henzler. Henzler: “A third of the track is wet, the rest is dry. So, switching to wets wouldn’t make sense. I had an eventful stint and was pushed off the track by the green Bentley. Fortunately, I didn’t hit anything.”
84 – Bleekemolen / Arnold / Menzel / Brück (Bentley Continental GT3)
17:06hrs
Jeroen Bleekemolen after the pit stop: “Lance David Arnold now will drive another stint. When he comes in after seven laps, I will take over. This was a very good start. The first laps couldn’t have run any better, for us.”
18:06hrs
The third-placed Bentley also pits.
18:09hrs
Switches to slicks.
18:13hrs
Nearly loses it in the Hatzenbach section after having slipped on the own lubricants.
85 – Smith / Kane / Meyrick / Arnold (Bentley Continental GT3)
18:02hrs
Stands in the airport exit area.
18:44hrs
Steven Kane: “We don’t know what happened. The contact with our driver, Guy Smith, was interrupted. It looks as if he was hit from behind. We now try to get the car back to the pits and hope that we will be able to repair it.”
88 – Preacher / Thomson / Lungstrass / Duffy (Aston Martin Vantage V8-GT4)
17:37hrs
Switches to wets.
18:43hrs
Drives off the track in the Breidscheid section.
18:46hrs
Back on the track that it left in the Breidscheid area due to technical problems.
