The battle for the 2016 ADAC Zurich 24h-Race title was taken down to the final metres. In the end, the AMG-Team Black Falcon won the race with its Mercedes-AMG GT3 #4 by crossing the line just 5.697 minutes ahead of the sister car #29 run by HTP-Motorsport.
1 – Vanthoor / Mies / Müller / Kaffer (Audi R8 LMS)
13:57hrs Driver swap. Nico Müller for Christopher Mies.
2 – Leonard / Frijns / Sandström / Vervisch (Audi R8 LMS)
13:56hrs Driver swap: Stuart Leonard for Robin Frijns.
4 – Schneider / Engel / Christodoulou / Metzger (Mercedes AMG GT3)
14:37hrs Pit stop for driver swap: Engel for Schneider.
14:43hrs Bernd Schneider: “What a weird race: I never witnessed a race having to be red-flagged due to hail. And the conditions also were tough apart from that. The final spurt will be really close, for us. Due to an unscheduled schedule we are in a rhythm that will be unfavourable, in the final hour.”
15:31hrs Maro Engel takes the lead with an uncompromising move in the Ravenol-Kurve.
5 – Stippler / Fjordbach / Mortara / Meyr-Melnhof (Audi R8 LMS)
13:44hrs Accident in the Hohe Acht area.
9 – Haupt / Buurman / Engel / Müller (Mercedes AMG GT3)
14:13hrs Pits for tyres and fuel.
16 – Busch / Busch / Mamerow / Rast (Audi R8 LMS)
15:05hrs The Twin Busch Audi also comes in for the final pit stop.
23 – Sims / Eng / Martin / Werner (BMW M6 GT3)
14:29hrs ROWE also comes in for a last scheduled pit stop. Dirk Werner for Maxime Martin.
14:37hrs Maxime Martin: So far, so good. A pity that we had these problems in the early stages as we certainly would have been able to match the pace of the Mercedes vehicles or even battle it out for the win. Now it’s all about defending our position.”
29 – Vietoris / Seefried / Hohenadel / Van der Zande (Mercedes AMG GT3)
14:11hrs Scheduled pit stop after nine-lap stint. .
15:17hrs Nail biter for the leaders. The team isn’t sure if the fuel will be enough and calculates if the car has to be called in for a splash ‘n dash.
15:20hrs The Mercedes has to pit again indeed.
15:21hrs Rejoins the race.
33 – Ziegler / Saurenmann / Schmidt (Audi R8 LMS)
14:27hrs Peter Schmidt for Ronnie Saurenmann.
37 – Jöns / Kane / Holzer / Brück (Bentley Continental GT3)
15:03hrs Marco Holzer to contest the final stint in the white Bentley.
38 – Brück / Menzel / Smith / Hamprecht (Bentley Continental GT3)
15:03hrs Last pit stop. Christopher Brück to contest the final stint.
44 – Dumbreck / Henzler / Ragginger / Imperatori (Porsche 991 GT3R)
14:26hrs Peter Drumbeck for Martin Ragginger for the final stint.
75 – Heyer / Asch / Ludwig / Keilwitz (Mercedes AMG GT3)
15:19hrs In the battle for sixth position, the lead of the Zakspeed-Mercedes-AMG over the Bentley #38 amounts to just 10.281 seconds.
88 – Alzen / Arnold / Götz / Seyffarth (Mercedes AMG GT3)
14:37hrs Alzen for Arnold for the final stint.
