A pitstop at the head of Hour 20 allowed the #20 BMW have its broken rear wing repaired and Jens Klingmann to take over from Martin Tomczyk – who would later be penalised a minute and 32 seconds for his earlier contact with the Black Falcon Porsche Cayman.
A front-left puncture then dented the #44 Falken Porsche’s chances of a podium finish, dropping it down to fifth behind the #22 Rowe Mercedes. Elsewhere, there were problems for two Audis: the #17 G-Drive Audi stopped on track in 27th place overall at Hohe Acht, while the #18 Race Experience machine clattered into the #62 Porsche turning into turn one.
Routine stops for the leading #4 Audi and #1 Mercedes were ticked off – although the #1 had a hairy moment passing a slower Toyota GT86 at the pit entry just before the pit limiter line. Christian Menzel jumped out and handed the #1 to Lance David Arnold. Menzel said: “It was actually quite good, but the traffic is simply hell. We basically did 20 qualifying laps, but it looks to me as if BMW and Audi still have something up their sleeve. Unfortunately we’re driving as fast as we can go.”
Running in seventh, Klaus Heyer passed the HTP Mercedes to Max Götz and reported: “It’s going great for us, we’re fully on track The circuit is dirty, however, and the conditions therefore tricky.”
The #502 Race Experience Audi – a solid top ten runner for much of the race so far – lost some time with a damaged track rod. “I’m completely satisfied with the race,” said Werner. “Unfortunately, the touch at the beginning and changing the track rod cost us valuable time Our goal is now the 10th place – that would be a good result for Felix, but I’m sure we could have done better.”
The #20 BMW then came into the pits – but appeared not to stop in the penalty box to take its applied penalty. German TV reported the car to be on the softest possible compound and driving at what the team called ‘full risk’. The gap at the front meanwhile is a little over 15 seconds between the #4 and #1.
Having been rested for several stints, Jeroen Bleekemolen got into the #1 Black Falcon car as the team prepared for a final push to tale the win. Christian Menzel reported: “The BMW is suddenly very quick This is very interesting for us to see but we stay on full throttle.” The #4 Audi completed another routine stop, too, before Christian Mamerow banged in one of its fastest laps of the race, and 8:22.499.
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