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.

A very quiet, slow sunrise sees very little change in the grand scheme of things at the Nurburgring 24 Hours, as Winward still hold a 1-2 lead as they have since yesterday evening.

Winward led as the second half of the race began, with the #3 of Verstappen holding the lead over Maxime Martin’s #80, as drama struck the #69 Dorr Motorsport McLaren as Timo Glock fell foul of the regulations having sped through a code 60, with the stewards electing to disqualify the ex-f1 and DTM star as another fan favourite car, the AT2 class leading #632 Black Falcon Fanatec found the wall after a suspected brake failure, seeing them drop off the class lead. Meanwhlie Verstappen opened up the biggest gap the #3 had seen in hours over Mikael Grenier’s #80, with some room to breathe for the race leader, as the Dutchman pulled out 30 seconds over the next stint before pitting again and handing the car over to…, with Maxime Martin staying aboard the #80.

Meanwhile, the top 10 had mostly consolidated their positions. In third was now the #99 ROWE BMW with Walkenhorst’s #34 of Mattia Drudi in fourth ahead of Connor Di Phillipi’s #81 M3 Touring, some two minutes back. Sixth was the #84 Abt Lamborghini of Mirko Bortolotti, but he was one of the quickest drivers on track and catching the cars in front by multiple seconds per lap, with the top 10 completed by the #67 Ford Mustang and three Porsches, #24 Lionspeed ahead of Dinamic GT’s #54 and the #48 of 48LOSCH.

As the sun began to show itself, Di Phillipi refused to let up, setting a blistering 8.16, the #81’s fastest lap thus far and cutting down the gap to fourth to under 30 seconds before making its next pit stop.