Frikadelli Racing’s #30 Ferrari 296 GT3 leads the 2023 running of the Nürburgring 24 Hours at the halfway mark, after 12 hours of entertaining racing in the dry on the Nordschleife.
In what is its first N24 with the 296 platform, the German fan-favourite has successfully fought its way back to the front after its early setback, when Nicky Catsburg suffered a puncture while holding a healthy 27-second lead after five hours.
All four of Frikadelli’s drivers haven’t put a foot wrong since the tyre failure and now find themselves almost two minutes ahead of the chasing pack after 80 laps and 10 pit stops.
Behind, a pair of BMW M4 GT3s make up the remaining spots in the top three. The #98 ROWE example is second with Maxime Martin aboard, just over 30 seconds ahead of the #72 Junior Team BMW which was spotted at a recent pit stop undergoing a brake change.
The sole-surviving GetSpeed AMG GT3 is fourth and the best-placed Mercedes. It was closer to the leaders until the 11th hour, when its #2 crew became one of the many teams to receive a 32-second time penalty for ignoring flag signals. As a result, Fabian Schiller is over three minutes off the leading Ferrari.
The #99 ROWE BMW completes the top five, a few seconds up the road from the pole-sitting #4 Bilstein Mercedes that’s sixth, and the final car in the order within four minutes of the leading Ferrari.
Further down the order outside the top five, the Rutronik #96 Porsche had been climbing the leaderboard as other cars around it hit trouble. However the team, shortly after breaking into the top seven, received a time penalty for ignoring flag signals and dropped back to eighth.
During Hour 10 Manthey Racing released the unfortunate news that it had opted to retire its #911 Porsche 911 GT3 R 992. The car had made significant progress from 20th on the grid in the opening hour before a puncture sent Kevin Estre spinning into the barriers at Tiergarten.
The team said it was too risky to continue through to sunrise.
“After the spin, we kept having problems,” the team said in a statement. “Despite a 13-minute loss of time, we sent the car back into the race, but we were deliberately cautious on the road. Nevertheless, there were always signs of problems with the tyres the cause of which we cannot identify. That is why we have now decided to take the ‘Grello’ out of the race.”
Another Porsche to be retired before the halfway mark was the #33 Falken Motorsports 911 GT3 R, which had an off at Kesselchen with Sven Müller aboard in Hour 12. Müller made it back to the pits, but the car was pushed into the garage and has been “locked up for the night” according to the official noticeboard. The #33’s woes adds to what has been a challenging N24 for Falken, which had high hopes ahead of the race with its pair of new 992s.
The #44 sister Falken Porsche is still running, but is 12th, delayed by its off at Flugplatz.
Outside the SP9 ranks, the 11th hour saw the sad sight of the Kissling Motorsport Opel Manta entering its garage for lengthy repair work to the car’s rear end. The team believes it may be linked to its contact with the #44 Falken Porsche at around midnight.
“We’ve had to remove the underbody and replace the rear axle. It could be secondary damage from a collision we just had,” driver Jürgen Schulten said.
In other noteworthy categories, the #163 Porsche leads Cup 2 and remains the best-placed car outside of SP9 in 25th overall, and the #47 KCMG Toyota Supra leads the SP10 class for GT4 cars.
In TCR, the #830 Hyundai Motorsport N Elantra heads into the second half of the race out front.
It’s been an intriguing opening 12 hours at the ‘Ring, with the race shaping up nicely at the head of the field. Following a number of incidents for key SP9 class cars in the first half of the race, Ferrari, BMW and Mercedes have emerged as the main contenders here, with Audi, Porsche and Lamborghini’s headline challengers all having suffered issues.
There is still a long way to go though. So much can and will happen before the end of this one.
Featured image courtesy of Frozenspeed
