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?

The excitement ahead of the race was immense amidst the searing heat of the region. It’s a welcome return to sunny skies for what should be a completely dry – and crucially red-flag free – 24 Hour race that saw just seven hours of running last year. And it’s also a welcome return to the front row for Porsche, as the fan-faveourite ‘Grello’ #911 run by Manthey sees them take Stuttgart take its first pole position in seven years. Grello won this race back in 2021, with Estre being partnered by Matteo Cairoli and Micheal Christensen. Can Estre pilot them to victory once again?

And there was drama before the start, as the fan favourite Dacia Sandero #300 had its engine cut out before the formation lap. The Marshalls gave it a push start, but ultimately the engine proved too stick to take the start, moving back into the garage meaning it failed to start with the third group.

Leading the field away though was Thomas Preining’s #911 Porsche, with Thomas Neubauer’s #45 Realize Kondo Ferrari alongside him down into turn one as the #14 Team Bilstein Mercedes of Maro Engel moving up to second as they went round the GP layout for the first time. Third remained Neubauer ahead of the #33 Falken Porsche of Sven Muller, as the long line of 27 GT3 machines all streamed onto the Nordschleife for the first time. Further back the second starting group also got away cleanly, an impressive feat considering just how many TCR’s, GT4’s and Porsche Cup Cars featured in that group. Group 3 also went well from the off, a car group featuring both the sole Subaru and the Volkswagen Beetle Cup car, as Preining led the field onto the second lap of the race

Meanwhile, the #65 of David Schumacher found itself behind the rest of the GT3 field after pitting as the rest went racing. It later transpired to be a transponder issue, with the stewards requesting the team repair to fix it. And in the Cup2 class the #347 car hit the barrier on its own opening lap, with significant damage to the chassis and having to limp back over fifteen kilometres for the Toyo Tires Cup car. Fifteen minutes in and the Green Hell had already claimed its first victim. In SP9, as the field began its first lap Thomas Preining was the first to reach the inevitable traffic, holding a five second lead over the Bilstein #14 Mercedes of Engel.

But as Preining sped away, the battle for second was really hotting up. The #14 Mercedes found itself under huge pressure from David Perel’s #45 Realize Kondo Racing Ferrari and Sven Muller’s #333 Falken Porsche, all three seperated by barely a second. But Preining fell foul of a Code 60 on the back straight, meaning they were now all separated by six seconds.

The next car to hit strife in the opening hour would be another fan favourite, the #13 VW Beetle Cup car that pitted after just two laps of running. Meanwhile, after being reeled in thanks to a Code 60 Preining opened up his lead a gain, setting the fastest lap of the race to that point. An 8.14 exactly helped him open the lead to just over seven seconds as the Dacia’s problem was revealed: It had been running three working cylinders on a four cylinder Renault Megane RS engine. And just minutes later the first SP9 pit stops began after just five laps.

In came the #98 ROWE BMW, the #1 Scherer Sport PHX Audi, Adam Christodoulou’s #17 GetSpeed Mercedes and David Perel’s #45 Ferrari. Meanwhile Preining stayed out and attempted the overcut and the #35 Walkenhorst Aston Martin had a huge off and pitted with scuff marks aplenty. This was followed by the #17 Team Bilstein Mercedes, the #28 Lamborghini and Nico Bastian’s #37 PROsport Aston Martin. The leading #911 Porsche finally pitted after eight laps of excellent driving, holding the lead all throughout. Preining was replaced by pole man Kevin Estre, as Sven Muller also pitted his #33 Falken Motorsports entry from second overall.

The #45 Realize Kondo Ferrari of David Perel now lead from Adam Christodoulou’s #17 Mercedes and Mattia Drudi’s #34 Walkenhorst Aston Martin. Drudi was the biggest mover amongst the SP9 field, having started back in ninth. By staying out three laps longer than the earliest pitters, the #911 Grello Porsche lost significant time, now running twenty seconds behind Perel’s leading Ferrari and sitting eighth overall.

After that, it was the turn of SP9 Pro to suffer some attrition, as Jannes Fittje beached his #11 SR Racing Mercedes on the GP layout. The car had started from the very back of the first starting group after incurring a penalty, and had failed to make ground since the beginning of the race. The cause of its troubles eventually was revealed to be a loose wheel that had simply removed itself from the chassis halfway round the GP layout after its first pit stop. Really, there’s not many worse ways to end a 24 hour race. It didn’t even last an hour.

The battle for what was now third still raged and almost spilled over into tears, as exiting a Code 60 Maro Engel reacted almost too quickly, ramming the back of Mattia Drudi’s #34 Aston after the Italian reacted slower, with some splitter damage to Drudi’s car. As that controversy unfolded Kevin Estre kept slowly gaining, the gap down to nineteen seconds. Drudi ended up repassing his rival later on in the lap as the #1 Scherer Sport PHX Audi of Christopher Haase was up to fourth and fighting with Maro Engel and Drudi for the final spot on the podium. Estre meanwhile kept on pushing, accidentally giving Augusto Farfus’s lone #98 ROWE BMW M4 a shove from behind as they passed through traffic.

Ninety minutes in though and it was still the #45 Realize Kondo Ferrari 296 of David Perel that lead after ten laps, with an eight second lead over Christodoulou and the battle for third just four seconds behind the leading South African. He’s hoping to become only the second driver from his nation to win this incredible race after Kelvin Van Der Linde took victory in both 2017 and 2022 with Audi.

But as the laps entered double figures, the weirdest red flag I’ve ever seen was called out, as the pit lane lost all electrical power. That really was the thing that stopped the on track racing, at least allowing the #11 to be recovered. As a result, it meant that some cars, including Bonk Motorsports’ #189 BMW M4 Evo in SP 8T went into the garage as virtually everyone took some sort of repair or work done on the car.

For now though, there’s nothing we can do except just wait this one out. Happily though, during the stoppage the #300 Dacia Sandero finished its repairs and will be joining the grid when it goes back to green.

With no further communication from the organisers, we’re still waiting for any official information regarding the re-starting of the 2025 24 Hours of the Nurburgring.

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