UPDATE (19:45 local): The race has resumed with the cars now on a formation lap. The grid order for the restart sees the #911 Manthey Porsche start from the front, with the #33 Falken Porsche second and the #14 GetSpeed Mercedes third.
The Kondo Racing Ferrari has lost out in the restart procedure. The #45 296 held the lead at the red flag, but has been dropped to fourth, with the grid set by the running order from a lap prior to the lap impacted by the power failure. The #28 ABT Lamborghini is starting from fifth.
UPDATE (19:00 local): There are signs of life in the pit lane! According to the organisers, the grid will be formed at 19:15 ahead of a restart at 19:45 local time.
UPDATE (18:10 local): Power is reportedly back in the pit lane. As for the restart, the race organisers have confirmed that “the previous lap (running order, DSC presumes) of the leader and the respective previous lap of each of the class leaders will be used for the new starting grid. The restart will take place behind the leading vehicle (safety car).”
We still await confirmation of when the restart will take place.
The 2025 Nürburgring 24 Hours has been red-flagged due to a power cut in the pit lane approximately 90 minutes into the race.
At the time of the stoppage, the Kondo Ferrari, which took the lead after the first round of stops, held onto first. The #17 GetSpeed Mercedes was second, with the #34 Walkenhorst Aston Martin of Mattia Drudi third.
There is no further information regarding a restart time yet as the cars return to pit lane. The live ticker states that updates will come “as soon as possible.”
“In the history of the interruptions of the 24h Nürburgring, this is certainly the most curious reason,” the ticker reads. “A power outage in the pit lane has also impacted the live timing system and refuelling points.”
A later update from the circuit confirmed that the power outage had been caused by: “a faulty cooling system, which is responsible for controlling and cooling the air conditioning units in large parts of the pit building. It overheated because an unusually high cooling capacity was called upon in the summer temperatures. The system has now been taken off the grid and is no longer in operation. All other circuits have been tested. This should have identified the fault and eliminated it for the rest of the race.”
ROWE Racing team boss Hans-Peter Naundorf added: “We’ve already had everything possible: hail, storms, but not something like this yet. It was the only right decision to show the red flag.”
The stoppage came after a sequence of frantic action in the first half of the second hour.
Adam Christodoulou in the #17 briefly broke away in second as the chasing pack came through an incident zone while pursuing the leading Ferrari.
Behind Drudi, who was slow off the speed limiter, was hit from behind by Christopher Haase’s #1 Scherer Sport PHX Audi, allowing Maro Engel to leapfrog the Audi and take fourth.
Behind that trio, Augusto Farfus and Kevin Estre were trying to stay in touch sixth and seventh with the two Falken cars, the #33 ahead of the #44 and the #27 Lamborghini completing the top 10.
The #11 Schnitzelalm Mercedes also had an off prior to the red flag, the car ending up deep in the gravel on the GP loop, having lost its right rear wheel, apparently on an out lap.
Image courtesy of Frozenspeed
