Three Porsche customer cars finished inside the top 10 overall at this year’s Nürburgring 24 Hours, with the #24 Lionspeed GP car finishing highest in sixth.
A total of 60 Porsche cars entered the German endurance classic with 10 different models, driven by 218 drivers from across the world.
It was another gruelling outing on the Green Hell, with mixed conditions throughout presenting a challenge for all 161 entries.
Despite the rain and cold weather, the Eifel classic attracted 352,000 spectators – more fans at the track than ever before.
At the end of a long race, three Porsche 911 GT3 R finished inside the top 10 overall.
“The conditions were extremely difficult. Things were particularly hectic in the first six hours, and it felt as though we were driving a full sprint race,” said Maximilian Müller, GT Race Support at Porsche Motorsport.
“In the battle for the overall classification, we didn’t quite make it this year due to a few retirements, but we were also lacking a bit of pace to compete at the very front.
“We’re working on that now so that we’re better prepared for the 24-hour race at Spa-Francorchamps at the end of June.
“Congratulations to our customer teams, who won their respective classes or achieved good results – we’re very pleased about that.”
After a tough 24 hours, the highest-finishing Porsche was the #24 Lionspeed GP car shared by Laurin Heinrich, Laurens Vanthoor and Ricardo Feller in sixth place overall and fifth in the SP 9 class.
The team lined up in 24th place after a tough qualifying, which included collisions in Qualifying 1 and the warm-up, but made good progress in the first three hours to run 15th.
The team stayed out of trouble and continued its progress into the early hours, going on to secure a top-six finish.
The #54 Dinamic GT car of Bastian Buus and Michael Christensen - two former Danish Porsche Juniors - Joel Sturm and Loek Hartog was seventh in class and eighth overall. They started from 21st on the grid and also had a largely trouble-free race.
As ever, it was a difficult race, with three retirements from the top class.
The #911 Grello car of Kévin Estre, Ayhancan Güven and Thomas Preining crashed out shortly before the four-hour mark, with Estre at the wheel.
The team lined up eighth and had a blinding opening few laps, charging from eighth on the grid to run second. Estre then went on to have a good dogfight with Maximilian Paul in the Konrad Motorsport Lamborghini for the lead.
After making its first pitstop, Preining took over at the wheel of the #911, and he took the lead of the race before the two-hour mark.
Sadly, shortly before the four-hour mark, the car hit a patch of oil on the track and spun into the barrier. The damage was too severe to continue, and the #911 car was retired from the race.
There were three other retirements from the SP 9 group.
The Falken Motorsports #44 car of Klaus Bachler, Tim Heinemann, Sven Müller and Morris Schuring, misjudged an overtaking move shortly before midnight and made contact, coming to a halt at the side of the track.
The #19 Dunlop Motorsport entry driven by Julien Andlauer, Dorian Boccolacci, Nico Menzel and Alessio Picariello also had an incident, crashing heavily in the Bergwerk area before slowly returning to the pits.
For the #55 Dinamic GT car, the race was over just 20 minutes before the finish line following a spin while running in twelfth place. It was driven by Michele Beretta, Alessandro Ghiretti, Joel Sturm and Loek Hartog.
In the Pro-Am category, Porsche customer teams celebrated a six-fold success.
In this class, professional drivers share the cockpit with ambitious amateur drivers.
The class victory went to the #48 Black Falcon car, driven by Daan Arrow, Patrick Assenheimer, Tobias Müller and Dylan Pereira. They finished tenth in the overall standings.
The Am class for purely amateur crews went to the second Black Falcon Porsche 911 GT3 R with Mustafa Mehmet Kaya, Gabriele Piana, Mike Stursberg and Thomas Kiefer.
The Cup 2 and Cup 3 one-make Porsche classes once again had extensive grids, with almost 30 entries between them.
Victory in the Cup 2 class, featuring the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (992), went to the BLACK FALCON Team Zimmermann #900 car shared by Alexander Hardt, Benjamin Hites, Benjamin Koslowski and Paul Meijer.
The Cup 3 class, made up of 17 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport (Typ 982) entries, was won by the #961 W&S Motorsport car driven by Moritz Oberheim, Philip Miemois, Lorenz Stegmann and Niclas Wiedmann.
Race Results
1. Engel/Stolz/Schiller/Martin (DEU/DEU/DEU/BEL), Mercedes #80, 156 Laps 2. Engstler/Bortolotti/Niederhauser (DEU/ITA/CHE), Lamborghini #84, -2.12,311 minutes 3. Krognes/Drudi/Thiim/Fernandez Laser (NOR/ITA/DEU/DEU), Aston Martin #34, -2.28,750 minutes 6. Heinrich/Vanthoor/Feller (DEU/BEL/CHE), Porsche 911 GT3 R, Lionspeed GP #24, -7.50,750 minutes 8. Buus/Christensen/Sturm/Hartog (DNK/DNK/DEU/NLD), Porsche 911 GT3 R, Dinamic GT #54, -1 lap 10. (1. PRO-AM) Arrow/Assenheimer/T. Müller/Pereira (GBR/DEU/DEU/LUX), Porsche 911 GT3 R, Black Falcon #48, -2 laps 11. (2. PRO-AM) Tilley/Hill/Kolb/Hofer (GBR/GBR/DEU/AUT), Porsche 911 GT3 R, Lionspeed GP #18, -3 laps 12. (3. PRO-AM) Rump/Bünnagel/Brundle (EST/DEU/GBR), Porsche 911 GT3 R, Mühlner Motorsport #123, -3 laps 13. (4.PRO-AM) Kim/Bruins/Cho/Seefried (KOR/NLD/KOR/DEU), Porsche 911 GT3 R, Hankook Competition #30, -5 laps 14. (5. PRO-AM) Goroyan/Kivtka/Berthon/Fontana (ARM/KGZ/FRA/CHE), Porsche 911 GT3 R, Car Collection #4, -6 laps 15. (6. PRO-AM) Li/Fjordbach/Ye/King (CHN/DNK/CHN/GBR), Porsche 911 GT3 R, High Class Racing #86, -6 laps 21. (1. AM) Kaya/Kiefer/Piana/Stursberg (TUR/DEU/ITA/DEU), Porsche 911 GT3 R, Black Falcon #5, -9 laps
