One week on from a historic hatrick for Scuderia Ferrari at Le Mans, Porsche and co. look to defend their glory on home soil. It’s the one and only 24 Hours of the Nurburgring, and it promises to be a brilliant one at that. But who will be victorious in the most unpredictable race of the year?

As mentioned at the end of the last post, the #50 Audi is in the wall, but there’s more drama at the front of the race as the first contender falls. Julien Andlauer was unsighted heading out of turn one, and with the sun blocking his view the #33 Falken Porsche ran straight into the #94 Cup2 Porsche of Sante Royale Racing with no chance of avoiding the spinning Porsche Cup car. Behind, Kelvin Van Der Linde narrowly avoided making it a three car pileup, and though Andlauer would get his stricken car, bonnet compressed against his windsheild, back to the pits that car’s chance of contending for the win tomorrow afternoon is as good as done. The most dramatic of starts to open this entry, and Falken’s charge is cut in half, the car forced to undergo extensive repairs as the golden hour gave way to night running for the first time in two years.

The next round of pit stops began shortly after, with a surprising early stop for the #911 Grello Porsche of Ayhancan Guven along with the top seven and the #34 Walkenhorst Aston Martin, meaning that now Kelvin Van Der Linde had made it up to second place overall on his charge up the grid. The #911 still led, but the gap was now just 17 seconds. The other big movers were the #64 Ford of Frank Stippler who was now up to eighth place overall, the #17 Team GetSpeed Mercedes albeit that car was moving down the order rather than up and also the #88 factory backed Subaru which was now up to sixtieth place overall having started at the front of the third starting group.

In terms of other classes, Cup2 was now narrowly led by the #948 of LOSCH Motorsport with nearly a 3 minute advantage over the #918 of Muhlner Motorsport. SP10, or effectively the standard GT4 class, was headed by the FK Performance Motorsport #187 while the all female entry of WS Racing led the AT3 class. TCR was living up to the expected Hyundai Motorsport civil war between the Bryan Herta Autosport run #831 of Robert Wickens, Mason Filippi, Micheal Lewis and Bryson Morris and the Target Competition operated #830 of Marc Basseng, Christer Jons and Manuel Lauck. At the moment it’s the Target Competition #830 with a nearly three minute advantage over its stablemate. Watch out though for the #776 Sharky Racing hailing from Armenia, they currently run second in the class splitting the two Hyundais. With this being the Nurburgring, you can’t nail on anyone to a class win until the end. It will be a great story to follow throughout though.

Meanwhile, on its fourth pit stop the #98 ROWE BMW would be sat stationary for 32 seconds as a penalty for contact with the #959 Porsche Cayman, before there was even more drama in the SP9 class. While piloting the #1 Scherer Sport Audi Luca Ludwig thumped the barriers on the run up towards the Carousel, the car limping after that accident and suffering damage to the chassis. Either way the #1 became the second contending car to suffer a huge blow to its chances. And then, the #64 Haupt Racing Ford Mustang also stopped on the Nordschleife with Frank Stippler at the wheel, the car was running in the top fifteen but was now sinking down the order to thirtieth before long, the car effectively out of the running, it’s day run. Ford hadn’t exactly had the most competitive N24 up to this point and that certainly didn’t help its chances. Now with just two cars in the running it meant they’d have an even tougher time of it against the more experienced teams. Meanwhile the situation of the #1 Audi became clear, the car was truly limping back to the pits with hefty damage and effectively out of contention for victory. When it finally returned to the garage, it was declared a retirement minutes later. With the #16 having been withdrawn prior to the race, last year’s winning team have really suffered reverse fortunes in 2025. A horrible weekend for the team, but they’ve still got the NLS crown to fight for with their cars at least. Another team with repairs to do were the Abt Sport Lamborghini #27 crew, having to replace a driveshaft on its fourth stop of the race.

Pit stops then came round again, with the main notable point being the #98 serving its penalty and slipping behind the #14 Team Bilstien Mercedes, as the sister #17 car of Adam Christodoulou running third as also in came remaining #44 Falken Porsche and Walkenhorst’s #34 car of Christian Krognes. Now, the #54 Dinamic GT Porsche moved up to fifth with a large gap over the fifth placed #45 Realize Kondo Ferrari of Axcil Jefferies. Manthey then pitted to swap Ayhancan Guven out for Thomas Preining who would take over driving duties with a thirty second lead over the #98 ROWE BMW, with the #45 Ferrari just three seconds behind. The Mercedes duo of #14 and #17 were fourth and fifth, with Dennis Fetzer’s #65 Ford Mustang running sixth. All in all, the top 10 were split by just under three minutes. Meanwhile, the #84 Eastalent Audi put its bid in for the weirdest incident of the race, as after a skateboard was left underneath the car it almost drove straight into the opposite wall on exiting the pits.

Heading into the eighth hour there was no major changes among the leading cars, with #911 still leading from the #98 and the alternate strategy #45 Ferrari. Cup2 was still led by the #948 LOSCH Motorsport entry ahead of Muhlner Motorsport’s #918, with SRS Team Sorg Rennsport’s #901 machine. Max Kruse Racing led in both AT2 with the #644 Porsche Cup entry and also in AT3 with the #19 VW Golf TCR. The TCR Hyundai civil I mentioned earlier in the race has fizzled out for now, with the #830 holding a commanding lead of nearly six minutes over the sister #831 car and WS Sport’s all female crew sit a strong second in AT3 in the #146 BMW M4 Evo, it’s great to see such a car in this epic race.

After stopping on track a while earlier with Frank Stippler hitting the barriers, the #64 Ford Mustang was now an official retirement. Ahead of the ninth hour the pit stop cycles begun again, with Priening’s #911 leading by nearly ninety seconds, the two Mercedes teams running second and third with Jesse Krohn’s #98 ROWE BMW now down in sixth and nearly four minutes down on the leader. Dinamic GT’s #54 were closing in on the fourth placed #28 Lamborghini while the Falken Porsche #44 closed in on Thomas Neubauer’s #45 Ferrari which was running 7th overall, while the two remaining Fords ran 11th and 13th as Manthey’s race leading #911 pitted from the lead as the #10 Max Kruse Racing VW Golf was summoned to the clerk of the course. Both Mercedes then pit at the same time, with the #17 serving a prior penalty and repairing some damage to its front, and also getting out ahead of its sister car. GetSpeed were now running ahead of Bilstein, Lucas Auer now in the former while the #14 stayed in the pits. In fact in ended up in the garage with complete confusion descending on the crew’s garage as the car was stuck having inexplicably lost drive. Another contending car was now all but out of the running, Mercedes pegged back to one car with a shot at victory.

All this serves to do is strengthen the chances of those still left, namely the #911 Manthey Porsche of Thomas Preining and the #98 ROWE BMW of Jesse Krohn in the top two, with Thomas Neubauer’s #45 Ferrari in third and the #44 Falken Porsche completing the top four. Walkenhorst’s #34 completes the top five, with the #65 Ford sitting sixth and the remaining SP9 Pro Mercedes #17 of Mikael Grenier stuck with a thirty two second penalty for pit stop time infringement to be served when it next calls into its box.

This race is proving tougher than ever on its contending cars, and now its a question of just who will survive this gruelling night? Stay tuned…

thumbnail credit – Philipp Ganjon, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons