It’s the return of the Green Hell’s showpiece event as Lamborghini lock out the front row for the first time, with Max Verstappen making the headlines before we’ve even begun. Can he cement his status as one of the true greats of our sport with a win here and break Mercedes’ longstanding curse that has stood now for a decade? It will certainly be no easy feat, as this year’s edition has attracted a record high of 41 SP9 entries all set to battle it out over the next 24 Hours.

The fan-favorite ‘Grello’ #911 Porsche is out of the Nurburgring 24 Hours after Kevin Estre lost the rear at Brunchen, suffering significant damage to the rear of his car, with the #64 Ford of Arjun Maini making the same mistake moments later. Both were running comfortably inside the top 10 at the time of the incidents.

Max Verstappen meanwhile has led the race overall, opening up a strong gap during his double stint. The car is now in the hands of Joules Gounon, and currently sitting 2nd behind Dennis Olsen’s #67 Ford as the field struggles with decaying grip levels as rain continues to wash over the track. Third is the #34 Walkenhorst Aston Martin of Kristian Krognes, with the top 5 completed by Maro Engel’s #80 Mercedes and the #81 BMW M3 Touring of Neil Verhagen.

Two more big SP9 players saw their days all but over, as the #45 Kondo Realize Racing Ferrari suffered a huge incident at Hatsenbach, while contact with the #47 KCMG Mercedes saw former race winner Scherer Sport PHX’s #16 entry brought into the pits for a significant repair job by Nick Yelloly.

With all the pit strategy now back in alignment after 2 hours Preining set about increasing his gap, which stood at just over 5 seconds to Max Verstappen’s #3, with Christian Engelhart running third and Maro Engel’s #80 now up to fourth ahead of their next pitstops. When they did driver changes saw Preining hand over the car to Ayhancan Guven in the #911, and Engelhart step out of the #7 in place of Bulgarian Pavel Lefterov. Neil Verhagen moved the M3 Touring #81 up to fourth in between Verstappen and Guven thanks to its differing pit strategy.

There was more drama in the opening minutes of the third hour as the #45 Kondo Realize Ferrari of Thierry Vermeulen who spun at Hatsenbach after catching traffic at the wrong time, and ended up in the barriers with terminal damage, its front completely crumpled.

Two cars that had been running on a different strategy since the start were the #67 of Christopher Mies and Christian Krogens’s #34 Aston Martin, who duelled for the lead up ahead of Guven and Verstappen who were having their own electric battle as spots of rain began to trickle onto the track, forcing everyone to run the rest of the lap on slicks in worsening conditions and before long rain was well and truly all over the racing surface.

Another Audi was then claimed by the Nordschleife, as the #16 Scherer Sport PHX of Alexander Sims had a huge crash in the final third of the lap after contact with the #47 KCMG Mercedes and with significant damage to the front bodywork and suspension managed to make his way back to the pits, but the car’s – and Audi’s – chances of victory were all but diminished.

The #37 ProSport Aston Martin Vantage of Guido Dumarey then slowed on the Nordschliefe with a puncture dropping it to 53rd overall and 38th of the SP9 runners.

Meanwhile, Verstappen closed up on the two leaders of Dennis Olsen’s #67 and the #34 Walkenhorst Aston Martin of Kristian Krognes as the three fought for the lead with Verstappen taking both of them into Tiergarten and for the first time was in the lead of the Nurburgring 24 Hours. Krognes would then pit, easing the pressure on Verstappen who slowly built up his lead over the #67. There were some more movers through the field, as ROWE’s #1 of Jordan Pepper was up to fifth, and Sven Muller’s #44 Falken Porsche up inside the top 10.

Up at the head of the field Verstappen was now comfortably in the lead, and opened up a 25 second gap over Guven in the #911 Porsche, with Pavel Leftorov closing the gap in the #7 Konrad Motorsport Lamborghini with Maro Engel 4th in the #80, before pitting the #3 and getting out of the car after a brilliant first stint with Joules Gounon climbing aboard. Ayhancan Guven also pitted the #911 Porsche, with Kevin Estre re-entering the car for his second stint, the gap bordering on 24 seconds.

But having brought the gap down Kevin Estre found himself facing the wrong way and with huge damage to the rear bodywork having dropped his Porsche at Brunchen and slammed into the barriers, the damage bad enough to force Estre to stop the car. Seconds later Arjun Maini made a similar mistake at the same corner, only he hit the front of his #64 Ford Mustang. Both were running inside the top 10 at the time, and meant 2 heavyweights of the class were now out of contention.