The lead was held, and indeed reinforced, throughout the next three hours by the #911 Porsche (2 mins and 45 seconds at the top of the hour) whilst behind, battles were fought out on track and in the pits by a number of runners
The #94 Astra has expired on the Grand Prix Strekke after an engine fire, just as the all-female crewed (in cockpit and pit garage) #89 VW Golf returns to the fray after an overnight engine change.
The #122 Opel Manta meanwhile has been revived after an epic 9-hour repair job which included contributions from the adjacently sited FEV Seat team, and the now underemployed BMW Schnitzer crew. The entire pitlane applauded the #122 out with Peter Hass making a single lap of the GP loop. the car pitting again, getting a brake bleed. the Manta then went out, performed a full Nordschleife lap and then pitted again, expect a run to the checkered flag in the final minutes at the very least from this excellent little team.
The #48 Mann Filter AMG’s challenge for the lead wasn’t helped any with a 32-second pit penalty for not respecting flag signals.
The AT leading #320 Porsche meanwhile gets a 92 second time penalty for a Code 60 violation, the class lead though is not under threat, a 2 lap lead the edge over the second in class #420 Porsche.
The #303 Cup 3 Porsche, that has led the class almost throughout, has stopped out on the Nordschleife, it has just a single lap advantage over the pursuing #310 car.
And the second Hofor racing BMW M3 CSL, the #81 has had an incident at Hatzenbach.
