A puncture for polesetter Mirko Bortolotti, a jump start and time penalty for Abt teammate Marco Mapelli, and fierce battles between Kevin Estre in the “Grello” and Maximilian Paul in the Konrad Lamborghini: the opening hour of the 54th ADAC RAVENOL 24h Nürburgring delivered plenty of action and the first flashpoints.
#3 Verstappen / Auer / Gounon / Juncadella (Mercedes-AMG GT3)
3:00 p.m. – Juncadella climbs to third place.
3:03 p.m. – Juncadella comes under heavy pressure from Kevin Estre.
3:17 p.m. – Juncadella tries to attack Mapelli in the #130 Mapelli / Catsburg / Yelloly (Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2), but the move backfires: Maximilian Paul in the #7 Stalidzane / Paul / Engelhart / Lefterov (Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2) and Kevin Estre in the #911 Estre / Güven / Preining / Campbell (Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) Evo26) slip through, dropping him back to fourth.
#5 Kaya / Kiefer / Piana / Stursberg (Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) Evo26)
3:33 p.m. – Piana makes contact with Marcel Fugel in the #75 Fugel / Fugel / Leuchter / Coronel (Audi R8 LMS GT3 evo II) under braking for Klostertal, sending bodywork flying from both cars.
#7 Stalidzane / Paul / Engelhart / Lefterov (Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2)
3:09 p.m. – After one lap, Max Paul muscles his way past Kevin Estre in the #911 Estre / Güven / Preining / Campbell (Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) Evo26) to move into third place.
3:41 p.m. – On the Döttinger Höhe, Max Paul makes another attempt to pass Kevin Estre in the #911 Estre / Güven / Preining / Campbell (Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) Evo26) but remains third.
3:58 p.m. – pits.
#16 Haase / Sims / Green (Audi R8 LMS GT3 evo II)
3:01 p.m. – Christopher Haase loses ground.
3:19 p.m. – Christopher Haase runs in fifth and calmly watches the battles ahead.
#34 Krognes / Drudi / Thiim / Fernadez Laser (Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 EVO)
3:28 p.m. – loses five places in the first part of the third lap and dropped from seventh to twelfth place.
#35 Fernandez Laser / Villagoméz / Fetzer / Aust (Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 EVO)
3:44 p.m. – Felipe Fernandez Laser: “All of a sudden, I had no fuel pressure anymore and briefly coasted. I tried to reset it, but it seems to be something else. The guys are checking the car now, and then we’ll see whether we can continue.”
#37 Dumarey / Wahl / Lönnroth / Konnerth (Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3)
3:49 p.m. – Christian Konnerth: “The opening lap was intense; suddenly there were cars facing the wrong way into the Müllenbach section. That was exciting, but things sorted themselves out relatively quickly. After that, we were able to drive a super clean first stint. We had hardly any or no Code 60 zones and no yellow flags.”
#62 Adelson / Asch / Ludwig / Winkelhock (HWA EVO.R)
3:52 p.m. – Sebastian Asch: “It was a lot of fun flying through the field like that. At the start, we had the chance to follow the GT3 cars a little. This is my 19th start here now, but every start is always something special. So far, everything is going fine, and the car is working. For now, we’re trying to bring it home safely. We made an earlier stop on purpose so the cars would come into the pits at different times.”
#71 Blank / Kaffer / Großmann / Jöns (Audi R8 LMS GT3 evo II)
3:58 p.m. – Pierre Kaffer: “The start was actually quite okay. As every year, it’s all about settling into the race properly. I think we managed that quite well. You can always discuss the driving style of certain colleagues. But apart from that, I’m very satisfied. Surprisingly, less happened in the opening laps than one might have expected. So let’s see what else the race has in store. I think it’s going to be a fast race. All in all, it’s a really great event here for the spectators and the fans.”
#84 Engstler / Bortolotti / Niederhauser (Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2)
3:01 p.m. – Mirko Bortolotti comes into the pits with a left-rear puncture.
3:15 p.m. – Martin Tomczyk: “In the second corner, when turning left, Daniel Juncadella hit him from behind and slashed the tire. Then we had no choice but to come in because we had a puncture. From my point of view, that is not acceptable.”
3:20 p.m. – After the puncture, Mirko Bortolotti drops to 47th place.
3:31 p.m. – Mirko Bortolotti sets the fastest lap of the race so far on his charge back through the field: 8:11.149 minutes.
#99 Harper / Hesse / Van der Linde / Vanthoor (BMW M4 GT3 EVO)
3:01 p.m. – spins just before the entrance to the Nordschleife.
#130 Mapelli / Catsburg / Yelloly (Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2)
3:00 p.m. – grabs the lead immediately.
3:03 p.m. – manages to pull slightly ahead right from the start and leads by several car lengths going into the Aremberg curve.
3:38 p.m. – receives a 32-second time penalty for a jump start!
3:50 p.m. – pits after six laps.
#170 Alesi / Kotaka / Koyama / Okumoto (Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO2)
3:56 p.m. – Giuliano Alesi: “That was a good first stint. We had no contact, stayed out of trouble, and the tires felt good. I think our pace was pretty good compared to the competition, so we’re really happy. The team did a great job. We had a few problems in the last two races, but now it looks good. All we have to do now is pull through. The race is still very, very long. At the moment, we’re simply waiting and making sure we get through the rest of the race without any problems. It was my first time experiencing the formation lap here. The fans are fantastic – I hope they enjoy the race and the good beer!”
#195 Gott / Farran / Hoenjet (BMW M240i Racing Cup*)
3:07 p.m. – Moran Gott leads the third starting group away and holds off the competition into the first turn.
#302 Lauck / Kim / Wallenwein / Azcona (Hyundai Motor Company ELANTRA N1 RP)
3:56 p.m. – Mikel Azcona: “The front bumper simply broke, and we had to replace it. To be on the safe side, I came back to the pits. We’re repairing it now and will go back out. I think we’ll lose about 30 to 40 minutes.”
#320 Smudo / Bollerslev / van Ramshorst / López Cesaratto (Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (992.1))
3:04 p.m. – spins in the Müllenbach section but continues.
#380 Strycek / Schäffer / Morhin / Soumagne (Opel Corsa GS Line 130*)
3:26 p.m. – spins after contact with #64 in the Hohenrain chicane but keeps going.
#396 Faßbender / Büllesbach / Schettler / Arimon (Porsche Cayman S*)
3:39 p.m. – is caught speeding in the pit lane and receives a 30-second time penalty.
#418 Lamadrid / Mendieta Blanco / Ramirez / Jünger (Porsche Cayman S*)
3:17 p.m. – runs through the grass at Eiskurve.
3:18 p.m. – runs through the grass again at Eiskurve.
3:24 p.m. – stops briefly at marshal post 120 (Ex-Mühle) but is able to continue.
3:27 p.m. – comes to a halt in the Breidscheid area with a technical problem.
3:54 p.m. – The technical issues continue: the Porsche Cayman briefly stops again beside the track in the Schwalbenschwanz section.
#477 Beck / Lachmayer / Mennecke / Korte (VW Scirocco R TSI*)
3:20 p.m. – pits for refuelling.
3:22 p.m. – pits to serve its time penalty from qualifying.
#677 Grilli / Alpiger / Neuhauser / Tauber (BMW M240i Racing Cup*)
3:58 p.m. – fails to meet the minimum pit-stop time and receives a 60-second time penalty.
#786 Nana / Breuer / Dieter Schmidtmann / Mutsch (Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2)
3:36 p.m. – makes contact with #86 Li / Fjordbach / Ye / Harry (Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) Evo26) in the Ravenol-S. Both cars continue.
#808 Umemoto / Geon / Gieras / Hsieh (Cupra TCR DSG)
2:44 p.m. – comes to a stop on the start-finish straight.
#902 Harrison / Nagelsdiek / Rennhofer / Wassertheurer (Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (992))
3:53 p.m. – Raphael Rennhofer now leads the 911 Cup class in the Cup2 Porsche.
#911 Estre / Güven / Preining / Campbell (Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) Evo26)
3:06 p.m. – Kevin Estre charges from eighth to third in the opening phase.
3:41 p.m. – Estre forces Max Paul in the #7 Stalidzane / Paul / Engelhart / Lefterov (Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2) wide at Eiskurve and gets past the Lamborghini.
3:58 p.m. – pits.
#918 Scheerbarth / Salewsky / Rebhan / Gatting (Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (992))
3:04 p.m. – Tim Scheerbarth wins the start of the second starting group.
#941 Rziczny / van der Snel / van der Snel / Erlbacher (Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport (Typ 982))
3:17 p.m. – Adrian Rziczny has to pit at the end of the opening lap to serve a time penalty, a penalty the team picked up in qualifying. The young Porsche driver gets back out before the third starting group arrives.