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.

With four hours left everything was still running like clockwork for those inside the top 10, with the #3 35 seconds to the good of the sister #80, Verstappen still running as one of the fastest drivers in the entire race and Engel unable to close. Both of them held a 6 and-a-half minute advantage over the #34 Walkenhorst Aston Martin of Mattia Drudi, who himself had a 20 second gap back to the remaining ROWE BMW #99, with Christian Engelhart only 80 seconds further back.

But with the next round of pitstops, Verstappen and Engel stayed in, the former for a triple stint and with a significantly larger gap than the team had earlier, but the #80 took a second brake change so there was potential for more pace from the chasing car. Even so, Fabian Schiller did comment to media that as Mercedes were hunting for their first overall win in a decade, they had ‘frozen the situation.’ The result was the #3 now held a 47 second gap to the sister car.

Attrition rates had dropped since sunrise, but drama struck again and it was more heartbreak for Lamborghini, as the delayec #130 Team Abt car that had started on the front row crawled to a stop on the Nordschleife with a puncture.

Winward had been running without issue or seemingly a care in the world pretty much since the sudden downpour gave them the lead on Saturday afternoon, but the biggest drama of the race so far occured when the #3 of Daniel Juncadella suffered suspension damage halfway around the ring, forcing to not only lose the race lead but any chance of a victory, even going a lap down on the field as the team frantically worked to resolve the issue. But the reality was now that Winward’s challenge for the win had just been halved, and Verstappen’s dream of a N24 win on debut was over in gutwrenching fashion.

Incredibly this meant the #84 that had been recovering since it’s first lap puncture was now running second after a sensational fightback, with Connor Di Phillipi’s #81 M3 Touring now on the overall podium as things stood. And while Verstappen may not be taking home the win, he’d more than proved himself as one of the standouts of this race having been consistently one of the fastest drivers in the field.

But up front the consequence was clear: The new race leader by some 7 minutes was the #80 Winward Racing Mercedes of Maro Engel, and while he could focus on increasing the gap, Nicki Thiim was having to hold off a charging Sheldon Van Der Linde in the remaining ROWE BMW for second place overall, the gap sitting at just 4 seconds while further back for the first time all Sunday the #77 Schuberth BMW of Charles Weerts was now inside the top 10.

Leading the charge then against the race-leading Winward was the #84, sitting 4 minutes down but while it was starting to slowly reel the Mercedes in it received a 86 second stop and go penalty for speeding in a code 60, meaning at best it would drop within the clutches of the third-placed #34 Walkenhorst Aston Martinm especially considering that after the Winward #80 made its next stop.

image credit: REZAG, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons