With several extremely fast laps, Kevin Estre defends his lead with his Manthey Porsche #911 in outstanding style. Falken Motorsports still holds second place, followed by the Black Falcon Mercedes-AMG GT3 #4. Early pit stops of some of the front runners and first Code-60 phases make for changes in the order.
#24 – Audi R8 LMS (Winkelhock,Rockenfeller,Haase,Müller)|Mike Rockenfeller
16:28hrs “It’s frustrating to be so far behind. We only can continue and wait and see what the race will bring. Currently we are just too slow.”
#25 – Audi R8 LMS (Mücke,Jöns,Fässler,Kaffer)
16:29hrs Crashes in the Code-60 zone at the exit of the Veedol-Chicane into the tail of the BMW 325i #130.
#30 – Porsche 911 GT3R (Arnold,Müller,Henzler,Campbell)|Matt Campbell
16:26hrs “The car handles well. I’m happy with my first stint.”
#33 – BMW M6 GT3 (Dumbreck,Dusseldorp,Imperatori,Klingmann)|Dusseldorp:
16:29hrs “My stint was very very nice. I had great battles with Audi and the Porsches. All the GT3 vehicles are close together, and everybody on the track are really fair. Now Peter Dumbreck is racing for us.”
#40 – Aston Martin Vantage V8 (Chadwick,Cate,Adam,Lynn)
15.31hrs stops at the Hohenrain-Chicane
15:42hrs fuel-pump problems were the reason
15:50hrs more problems, again at the Hohenrain-Chicane
#41 – Audi R8 LMS GT4 (Dontje,Möller Madsen,He,Hofer)
16:01hrs goes off into the gravel at the exit Michael Schumacher S
#47 – Mercedes-AMG GT3 (Baumann,Mortara,van der Zande,Juncadella)
16:18hrs Team Principal Günter Aberer: “We made an early pit stop for fuel and fresh tyres. We hope to get out of the heavy traffic by this move and have a free track.”
#69 – Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo (Wächtler,Scholze ,Trebing ,Möller)
16:18hrs Driveshaft broken. Stands in the garage.
#80 – Porsche 997 GT3 Cup (Vleugels,Warum,Welschar,Sapino)
16:06hrs Hubert Haupt hits Kevin Warum in the Galgenkopf area. Warum spins and crashes backwards into the crash barriers.
#911 – Porsche 911 GT3 R (Estre,Dumas,Vanthoor,Bamber)
15:48hrs Despite having to lap the first cars Estre needs just 8:19.230 minutes for lap two.
15:51hrs Estre’s first lap in 8.18,473 minutes represents a new lap record. The old, 8:18.690 minutes, was set in 2015 by Augusto Farfus in a BMW Z4 GT3.
16:10hrs Kevin Estre drives an outstanding first stint. With an 8:17.960-minute lap he improves the lap record once again. .
#912 – Porsche 911 GT3 R (Lietz,Pilet,Makowiecki,Tandy)|Pilet
15:41hrs Pits after the first lap and an additional short GP circuit lap.
15:43hrs the reason for the pit stop: the sensors signalled low pressure in the left front tyre.
15:47hrs The Porsche had a puncture due to debris in the tyre.
