Just a few minutes into the 18th hour, the #80 RJN Nissan was spotted crawling down the Döttinger Höhe – another deflated tyre for the car which destroyed the left-front wheel arch. It managed to get back into the pits, but it meant further delay for what has become a race-long recovery drive where the team’s efforts continue to go unrewarded.
Rowe Racing’s #23 entry, which has been running steadily since the incident in hour one, continued to climb up the order. The Mercedes got by the #8 Haribo Porsche of Mike Stursberg through traffic to claim ninth position.
Meanwhile, up at the front, there was a scrap for second overall as the #20 Schubert BMW began to hassle the #1 Black Falcon Mercedes, which had slipped back because of the penalty earlier in the seventeenth hour. The fight continued for several laps as neither car could find enough of an advantage to overtake or create a gap.
Then there was drama for the other Rowe Mercedes (the #22), which had a left-front puncture halfway through its 113th lap. The good news was that it was on its in-lap, but the bad news was that it cost the car a considerable amount of time and fourth overall to the #44 Falken Tyre Porsche.
The battle for the lead began to heat up again as 10am came into sight, as the #4 of Markus Winkelhock was being reeled in very quickly by Andreas Simonsen in the #1 Black Falcon Mercedes and #20 Schubert BMW. Winkelhock’s lead was almost a minute at the start of Hour 18, but after 40 minutes was reduced to just 13 seconds.
Both Prosperia C. Abt Racing Audis were in the wars throughout the night, but finally the #10 was announced as a retirement at 9:45am due to a driveshaft failure, the same issue that hindered the #9’s progress and forced it out of the top 100.
The battle for the lead never came to fruition during these two hours, but the duel for second was sufficiently entertaining. It was eventually capped off by a great move by the #20 Schubert BMW of Dominik Baumann for second with a little over six hours left in the race, going round the outside of the #1 Mercedes, as they went three-abreast through traffic. He immediately pulled a gap thereafter, in an attempt to catch the leader. But Baumann had to pit at the end of that lap, and had to take avoiding action at the pit entrance to get past the slow Opel Manta being pushed down the pit lane.
The #502 Audi, after a near-faultless first half came in with a driveshaft problem which put them out of the top 10. Meanwhile, the #20 was having a problem with a loose lower rear wing element. A lap later down at turn one on the GP loop, the Schubert BMW t-boned the #160 Black Falcon Porsche Cayman, damaging its suspension.
Cameras showed the #8 Haribo Porsche facing the wrong way stuck in the grass run-off on the climb up to Höhe Acht, with what looked to be a radiator issue. The stranded 997 had to be towed away by a recovery vehicle.
As the 19th hour wound down, the #4 Phoenix Audi had found a rhythm and was able to keep a manageable gap back to second place of around 15 seconds. Consistent lap times of around eight and a half minutes was enough to keep the #20 of Martin Tomczyk and #1 SLS at bay.
SK
