The #911 Manthey Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R 992 of Kevin Estre leads the 52nd running of the Nürburgring 24 Hours after an hour of racing.
Estre, who started second, immediately found himself in the lead when the pole-sitting RMG BMW dived into the pits at the end of the parade lap.
Since then the Frenchman has been locked in a battle with Augusto Farfus’ #99 ROWE BMW. The pair proved almost untouchable, drove away from the field and opened up a gap of more than 40 seconds to third place ahead of the first round of scheduled SP9 stops at the end of the hour.
Estre did a superb job of holding onto the lead (on full wets), successfully fending off Maro Engel’s #130 GetSpeed Mercedes on Lap 1 and then Farfus (on drying wets) for the rest of the hour.
The lead change before the race got underway was a result of a rapid change in weather conditions.
Rain showers on the Nordschleife – which began at Hohe Acht as the grid began to clear – made the choice of tyre for the start critical.
While most of the SP9 runners switched to wets before the formation lap, a handful of key cars stayed on slicks. It was a gamble that those on dry tyres would immediately regret as they made their way around the circuit to the start line.
The main headline was that Team RMG’s decision to stay on dry Michelins meant Daniel Harper effectively gave up pole position. The British driver dived into the pits seconds before the start to switch to drying Michelin wets for his #72 BMW.
In addition, the #98 ROWE BMW of Marco Wittmann, #4 HRT Mercedes of Luca Stolz and the Glickenhaus started by Thomas Mutsch all followed him in and opted for a change of compound for the opening lap.
This allowed Kevin Estre’s ‘Grello’ through to the lead as the lights went out. The Frenchman was then instantly challenged by a hard-charging Maro Engel in the #130 GetSpeed Mercedes, who snuck past at the Goodyear hairpin to take the top spot.
His lead wouldn’t last though, as it quickly emerged that he was on slicks. The moment Engel hit the wet sections of the Nordschleife he had zero grip and dropped like a stone, from the lead to 20th on the opening lap.
Unsurprisingly, he came in to take wets straight away and returned to the circuit down in 24th. The German has since climbed to 18th.
Of the other early stoppers, Harper in the pole-sitting BMW made the most progress with a spirited drive through the field.
From the back of the first start group, he climbed back up to third before the first set of scheduled stops and got to within 44 seconds of the lead.
Stolz meanwhile heads into Hour 2 in contention seventh in the #4 Mercedes and the Glickenhaus currently sits 17th.
Elsewhere in the top class the #34 Walkenhorst Aston Martin hit trouble in the opening hour, the car suffering a right-rear puncture after reported contact on Lap 1.
This forced David Pittard to limp back to the pit lane for new rubber and repair work to the damaged corner of the car. When he rejoined the race he found himself down to a lowly 125th overall.
The #15 Scherer Sport PHX Audi also had to make an unscheduled stop due to a screw getting lodged in a tyre, which needed replacing. It is now 15th.
With conditions improving, teams began coming in to return to slicks at their first fuel stop. The order will therefore shuffle yet again as the race enters its second hour.
Remarkably, despite the challenging changable conditions, there have been no major incidents to this point.
23 more to go…
