A duel between the #3 Getspeed AMG, with Fabian Schiller at the wheel – and Dries Vanthoor in the leading #15 Phoenix Audi was developing throughout the mining with the pair just a handful of seconds apart as the race
Rene Rast meanwhile was dealt a 32 second penalty whilst running in fourth and would drop off a battle with the 3rd placed #4 GetSpeed AMG, the pair well over 2 minutes off the lead battle.
With the pair in visual range the rain began to fall as the cars turned onto the Nordchleife.
Aston Martin meanwhile tweeted out the in-car video from Nick Thiim’s race-ending accident showing clearly that the car slid off on oil from another competitor.
When you become a passenger at the Green Hell…#AstonMartin #24hNBR pic.twitter.com/8X4o6eTfB7
— Aston Martin Racing (@AMR_Official) May 29, 2022
And Laurens Vanthoor took to social media with an outpouring of emotion over his exit from the race in the #1 ‘Grello’ Porsche.
1/3 I’ll probably never be ready to put this into words.. What happened yesterday was a nightmare. I know I’m smarter, I know you don’t take that amount of risk in a 24h race.
It’s painful to be this open in public but the reason behind is that I was racing my brother.— Laurens Vanthoor (@VanthoorLaurens) May 29, 2022
2/3 My emotions took over and my brain stopped working. We’ve been competing against each other since we were kids, never backing off and rather breaking a leg then loosing to each other. Unfortunately this competitiveness took the upper hand yesterday.
— Laurens Vanthoor (@VanthoorLaurens) May 29, 2022
3/3 I regret it badly, it was unprofessional.
I have no hard feelings towards Dries, in the contrary, I’m a proud brother. In the future we will have each others back.
Today was a black day in my career. I will regret it for a very long time but that’s how life works.— Laurens Vanthoor (@VanthoorLaurens) May 29, 2022
