Manthey’s #911 Porsche 911 GT3 R 992 leads the way in the 2025 edition of the Nürburgring 24 Hours at the six-hour mark.
The ‘Grello’ machine held station out front after the restart, following the 2.5-hour red flag for the power outage. Kevin Estre was aboard when the race resumed, before handing over to Ayhancan Güven at the car’s second stop.
The lead gap is seven seconds to the #98 ROWE Racing BMW, which has risen up the order from ninth at the restart after a spirited drive from Kelvin van der Linde.
The #98 looked poised to head into hour seven in third, but disaster struck the #33 Falken Porsche while running second.
Julien Andlauer ended up hitting the #94 Sante Royale Racing Team Cup 2 class Porsche hard at Turn 2 head-on. The #94 was turned around by a BMW and left facing oncoming traffic, blinding Andlauder as he came through. Van der Linde then missed becoming another victim of the same incident by mere inches.
It caused heavy front-end damage to the #33 and forced the Frenchman to dive into the pits for repairs after a short run through the Grand Prix loop.
The #14 GetSpeed Mercedes is up to third with Maxime Martin aboard. Ralf Aron is now fourth in the #17 GetSpeed AMG, after a multi-car battle in the closing minutes of the sixth hour with David Pittard in the #34 Walkenhorst Aston Martin and the #27 ABT Lamborghini of Jordan Pepper.
The Kondo Racing Ferrari, meanwhile, is currently 15th overall with Felipe Fernandez Laser at the wheel.
The car restarted the race down in fourth after the supplementary regulations cost it the lead it held at the red flag. The car then came in for an unscheduled stop shortly after the action went green, due to a slow puncture caused by debris.
It briefly returned to the lead once the rest of the SP 9 field pitted for a second time, a handful of laps later, but it is out of sequence and will run on an alternative strategy from here on out.
There were two other incidents of note. The #8 Juta Racing Audi had a scary moment at Pflanzgaten, after Alexey Vermenko stumbled over a backmarker, put a wheel on the grass and looped around, narrowly avoiding the barriers.
Then, right before the end of the sixth hour, the #50 equipe vitesse Audi of Eric Ullström had a big solo shunt at Hohe Acht, spinning across the infield into the barriers side-on.
Further down the timing screens, the SP 10 (GT4) leader crashed out before the quarter mark. The #111 Schnitzelalm Mercedes AMG GT4, driven by Guido Wirtz, ended up in the barriers and out of the race.
This left the door open for the #187 FK Performance Motorsport BMW M4 GT4 to take the lead. The #67 AV Racing by Black Falcon BMW M4 GT4 Evo sits second, with the #175 PROsport Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 third.
Meanwhile, in TCR, Robert Wickens has completed his first stint aboard the #831 Hyundai Elantra N TCR, which currently sits second in the four-car class. The sister #830 Elantra leads the way by 10 seconds.
“It was a weird one,” Wickens told DSC. “I got my first laps, then it was a red flag.
“At the restart, it was pretty good; we got back into second place from third in class and settled into a good rhythm. It was tricky with the visibility with the sun in our eyes. It’s going to be a long race!”
Fans of the Dacia Logan will be pleased to learn that it has finally joined the race after its mechanical woes at the start. It has completed nine laps and is running 131st overall.
Image courtesy of Frozenspeed
