With nine hours of the race contested, A Mercedes quartet holds the lead in the 44th ADAC 24h Race. The leading car is the one of Haribo racing who focus on car ’88 since 22:50hrs as the team had to retire the sister car due to an accident earlier than scheduled. Behind the race leaders who currently have completed 34 laps, the teams Black Falcon #9 and HTP-Motorsport #29 and #30 held the positions two to four. The Porsche 911 GT3 R #912 follows in fifth position, the fastest BMW M6 GT3 (#100) is sixth. The best-place Audi R8 LMS, the car #2, currently holds eighth position.
1- Vanthoor / Mies / Müller / Kaffer (Audi R8 LMS)
22:54hrs driver swap, Laurens Vanthoor takes over
23:41hrs driver swap: Pierre Kaffer for Vanthoor
23:48hrs Vanthoor: “The first stint was poor, as we had made a bad decision regarding the tyre pressure. The car was virtually undrivable. The second stint was quite okay but there was a lot of traffic and always at the wrong places.”
2 – Leonard / Frijns / Sandström / Vervisch (Audi R8 LMS)
22:55hrs driver swap, Robin Frijns in the cockpit.
23:29hrs Frijns: “We had some problems in the rain as the tyre pressure increased more and more, So, we were somewhat slow compared to our competitors. Therefore, I opted for switching early to slicks. A courageous but good decision The first two laps weren’t easy as there still were some wet spots but altogether we were faster.”
23:41hrs driver swap Stuart Leonard for Robin Frijns
3 – Abbelen / Schmitz / Huisman / Siedler (Porsche 991 GT3R)
22:46hrs The Porsche was hampered by an electronic throttle-response problem. The team announces to have detected and solved the problem .
23:25hrs Pit stop for tyres, switches from intermediates to slicks. Driver swap: Abbelen for Siedler. Siedler: “My stint war slightly longer as we had a throttle problem. It refused to open to more than 50 percent and therefore, I had to pit.”
4 – Schneider / Engel / Christodoulou / Metzger (Mercedes AMG AMG GT3)
23:02hrs Driver swap, Manuel Metzger for Bernd Schneider
23:05hrs On lap 25, the currently second in the overall standing gains 10 seconds on the leader..
23:22hrs driver swap – Adam Christodoulou for Manuel Metzger
5 – Stippler / Fjordbach / Mortara / Meyr-Melnhof (Audi R 8 LMS)
00:05Uhrs Driver swap – Nicki Mayr-Melnhof for Anders Fjordbach
6 – Haase / Rast / Winkelhock / Stippler (Audi R8 LMS)
00:02hrs Driver swap – Rene Rast for Markus Winkelhock
7 – Thiim / Turner / Sorensen / Lamy (Aston Martin Vantage)
22:56hrs Darren Turner comes in for scheduled pit stop
23:24hrs driver swap: Nicki Thiim for Darren Turner
8 – Alzen / Arnold / Götz / Seyffarth (Mercedes AMG AMG GT3)
22:50hrs Pushed through the garage into the team tent. Jan Seyffarth had hit the crash barriers, with the Mercedes.
22:53hrs Seyffarth: “At the Pflanzgarten/Großer Sprung area I had a close encounter with a car to be lapped. A misunderstanding. I spun, went off and hit the crash barriers with the front, thus destroying the front splitter. You can’t continue with the car like that”
23:07hrs Gerhard Ungar: “Repairing the car makes no sense. We had retired one of the two cars later in the night anyway.”
9 – Haupt / Buurman / Engel / Müller (Mercedes AMG AMG GT3)
23:46hrs driver swap, Maro Engel for Dirk Müller
10 – Lee / Thong / Cheng / Yoong Loong (Audi R8 LMS)
00:15hrs Stands in the Hohe Acht area after having hit the crash barriers. According to the latest information the car isn’t able to roll.
14 – Al Faisal / Gerwin / Dontje / Huff (Mercedes AMG AMG GT3)
23:47hrs driver swap – Indy Dontje for Robert Huff
22 – Graf / Westbrook / Catsburg / Palttala (BMW M6 GT3)
23:20hrs Westbrook pits for tyres, continues.
23 – Sims / Eng / Martin / Werner (BMW M6 GT3)
23:49hrs driver swap – Dirk Werner for Maxime Martin
23:54hrs Maxime Martin: “I had a real good first stint. In the beginning I was racing on wets but the track dried more and more and so we opted for switching to slicks. Driving in the night is not too easy if there is only one dry line. In particular if there’s a lot of traffic. But I had a lot of fun and we have to continue like that.”
27 – Adam / Rees / Lauda / Stanaway (Aston Martin Vantage)
23:33hrs Richie Stanaway currently racing the car
23:48hrs 5:32-minute stop-and-go penalty due to a yellow-flag infringement
28 – Basseng / De Phillippi / Rockenfeller / Scheider (Audi R8 LMS)
23:56hrs driver swap – Scheider for Rockenfeller.
29 – Vietoris / Seefried / Hohenadel / Van der Zande (Mercedes AMG AMG GT3)
23:14hrs Driver swap, Renger Van der Zande takes over
33 – Ziegler / Saurenmann / Schmidt (Audi R8 LMS)
23:01hrs Too short pit stop – 32.4-second stop-and-go penalty
23:29hrs driver swap. Ronnie Saurenmann takes over
00:01hrs 30-second stop-and-go penalty for pi-lane speeding
00:22hrs Driver swap – Peter Schmidt for Ronnie Saurenmann
38 Brück / Menzel / Smith / Hamprecht (Bentley Continental GT3)
23:17hrs Christopher Brück: “Some sections still are wet. So racing on slicks ain’t no bed of roses.”
42 – Cate / Dr. Kamelger / Turner / Guelden (Aston Martin Vantage GT8)
23:55hrs Technical failure in the Eiskurve.
00:33hrs Technical failure at the Galgenkopf
43 – Dr. Bänziger / Leemhuis / Dr. Kamelger / Mal (Aston Martin Vantage V8)
23:07hrs Drives slowly in the Adenauer Forst area
44 – Dumbreck / Henzler / Ragginger / Imperatori (Porsche991 GT3R)
22:41hrs Switch to slicks and driver swap: Henzler for Imperatori.
00:04hrs Driver swap – Ragginger for Henzler.
65 – Kroner / Schuhbauer / Dr. Bez / Neuser (Aston Martin Vantage V12)
23:04hrs Driver swap Tobias Neuser for Heinz-Jürgen Kroner
75 – Heyer / Asch / Ludwig / Keilwitz (Mercedes AMG AMG GT3)
23:43hrs collision in the Yokohama-S with the Audi #10. Both cars can continue, the Audi after having spun.
77 – Hertenstein / Preacher / Lungstrass (Aston Martin Vantage V8)
23:30hrs technical failure on the GP circuit.
88 – Alzen / Arnold / Götz / Seyffarth (Mercedes AMG AMG GT3)
23:45hrs scheduled pit stop for fuel and tyres. Arnold continues.
00:03hrs In the previous lap, the race leader was at least 35 seconds faster than the other cars holding top-eight positions.
100 – Edwards / Klingmann / Luhr / Tomczyk (BMW M6 GT3)
23:39hrs scheduled stop for fuel and tyres – I. Luhr continues
702 – Mutsch / Westphal / SIMONSEN / Laser (SCG SCG003C)
22:53hrs Strong performance of the die Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus: As 10th for the first time in the top 10.
00:17hrs driver swap, Andreas Simonsen takes over.
912 – Lietz / Bergmeister / Christensen / Makowiecki (Porsche 911 GT3 R)
23:53hrs On lap 30, the Porsche takes the lead for the first time to then come in for a scheduled pit stop. As one of the few teams fighting on the front end of the field, the Porsche completed a nine-lap stint in dry conditions.
23:54hrs pit stop – Fred Makowiecki is replaced by Michael Christensen who is about to contest his first stint. Makowiecki: “I had a good stint. Our car is competitive. We delivered in consistent style in the wet and when we switched to slicks we could make it to the top positions. Let’s see what happens. After all, there still are 16 hours to go.”
999 – Bouveng / Blomqvist / Krognes / Di Martino (BMW M6 GT3)
00:13hrs After a repair break back in the race. Team Manager Niclas Königbauer: “At Pflanzgarten 2, the driver reported irregularities on the car. So we called him in and detected a rear-axle damage. We hope that we will be able to work us back up, now. It was a real pity as we just had battled our way up to 10th.”
