Porsche customer team Manthey EMA secures second in disrupted Nürburgring 24 Hours

Poor weather conditions at the iconic German circuit prompted 14 hours of downtime, with heavy fog drawing in late on Saturday night and halting action until Sunday lunchtime. Despite attempts to resume the race, it was not possible, and Manthey EMA took the runner-up spot with Kévin Estre, Thomas Preining, Laurens Vanthoor and Ayhancan Güven. The result means Porsche has extended its lead in the Intercontinental GT Challenge manufacturers’ standings, having secured victory in the opening round at the Bathurst 12 Hours in February. With the two Falken Motorsports cars, as well as the Lionspeed GP’s Porsche, three other 911 GT3 R finished in the top 10.

The story of the race

The race started under tricky conditions, with rain setting in during the formation lap on the 25.378-kilometre combination of the shortened Grand Prix circuit and the historic Nordschleife. Manthey EMA’s Porsche started second, driven by Estre, and was already fitted with rain tyres. It quickly moved into the lead after the BMW which was ahead pulled back into the pits to change tyres. Facing changeable conditions, Estre managed to defend his lead position until the first pit stop, where the tyres were changed to slicks for the drying track. Herberth Motorsport’s 911, driven by Vincent Kolb, Dennis Olsen, Matt Campbell and Robert Renauer, was running in fifth place for a long stretch. It was forced to stop after becoming entangled in a collision caused by another competitor, which included contact with the guard rail at the end of Döttinger Höhe. The contact and ensuing stop dropped the #5 car to 20th place. After just over seven hours of racing, at 11.20pm the race director called a stop to the action due to the heavy fog. At this stage, Manthey EMA’s car was running third overall, with Falken Motorsports’ two vehicles in eighth and ninth. The #33 Porsche was shared by Klaus Bachler, Julien Andlauer, Sven Müller and Alessio Picariello. The sister car was crewed by Martin Ragginger, Tim Heinemann, Nico Menzel and Joel Eriksson. Lionspeed GP and Dinamic GT were in 12th and 13th before the break. Herberth Motorsport followed in 16th.

After several further delays in the morning, at 1.30pm the race director gave the green flag to restart the race for five formation laps behind the safety car. However, the persistent thick fog continued to severely impair visibility, especially on the Grand Prix circuit and the Döttinger Höhe. Manthey EMA’s Porsche was permitted to line up behind the safety car in second place, as it had pitted shortly before the red flag and was granted a lower minimum pit stop time than the BMW in front, shuffling up the order accordingly. At around 3pm, after just five laps behind the safety car, the race director made the final call to stop the race. Due to differing refuelling strategies, the order had again changed with a view to a possible restart. The #33 Falken Porsche advanced to sixth place in the final classification, with LionSpeed GP in ninth. This earned the driver quartet Antares Au, Patric Niederhauser, Indy Dontje and Patrick Kolb victory in the SP9-ProAm class. Tenth place went to the second car fielded by Falken Motorsports.

Comments after the race

Ayhancan Güven (TR, Manthey EMA, Porsche 911 GT3 R #911): “I can completely understand the race director’s decision – continuing under these conditions would’ve been too dangerous. We fought for the lead from the start and were almost always among the top three. Unfortunately, we weren’t in first place when the red flag came out. Obviously, we wanted to win, but I’m still happy with our result.” Julien Andlauer (FR, Falken Motorsports, Porsche 911 GT3 R #33): “I’m almost lost for words to describe this race. Constantly changing conditions made it extremely difficult from the outset. The team did a fantastic job under these circumstances. Unfortunately, we were hit by penalty right at the start because we were slightly too fast in the pit lane. That threw us far back. Afterwards, we were very consistent, especially in the dry. We collected a lot of data and a wealth of experience for next year.” Patric Niederhauser (CH, Lionspeed GP, Porsche 911 GT3 R #24): “The race didn’t go as we would’ve preferred because of the cancellation. Still, we were determined to win the ProAm class, and we did. We can be very proud of that, because thanks to a great strategy, we succeeded in making up a few positions at the end. If the race had been allowed to restart, we might even have had a chance of an outright win. Nevertheless, the race director made the right decision. My first 24-hour race here with Porsche went very well, I’m very pleased.”