We’re halfway through the 2025 Nürburgring 24 Hours, and it’s Manthey EMA that holds a commanding lead with its #911 Porsche 911 GT3 R 992.
The ‘Grello’-liveried car has had a fault-free run through the opening 12 hours of the race and sits just over two and a half minutes clear of the rest of the pack with Kevin Estre at the wheel.
ROWE Racing’s #98 BMW M4 GT3 EVO – currently driven by Augusto Farfus – has clung onto second, though it has lost valuable ground to the leading Porsche over the past six hours.
The #98 crew was dealt a 32-second pit stop time penalty for contact with a Porsche Cayman earlier in the race, which was later withdrawn “after a new examination” by the stewards. Nevertheless, the car has steadily fallen away from around 15 seconds off the #911, to 2.5 minutes back since the race went full dark.
Raffaele Marciello, Jesse Krohn and most recently, Farfus, have pushed hard to keep the pressure on Manthey since nightfall, but haven’t found a way to match or better the pace of the Porsche.
Instead, the #98 has fallen into the clutches of the #34 Walkenhorst Motorsport Aston Martin, currently being steered by Nicki Thiim, which is just 3.3 seconds behind.
The Vantage completes the top three in the overall running order, which features seven manufacturers in the top 10 after a number of significant penalties, incidents and mechanical woes for SP 9 contenders.
The #28 ABT Lamborghini has fought its way to fourth. It’s lapping ahead of the #17 GetSpeed Mercedes AMG GT3 in fifth and the off-sequence Kondo Racing Ferrari, which has been climbing as high as second during each pit cycle, before dropping back to sixth.
Mercedes-AMG’s chances of a first N24 win since 2016 have been dealt a severe blow since the race hit the six-hour mark.
The aforementioned #17 AMG GT3 Evo fell foul of the rulebook with just under 16 hours to go. While sitting fourth and 77 seconds off the lead, the car was handed a 46-second time penalty for going below the minimum pit stop time, dropping it to seventh at its fifth stop, two and a half minutes off the lead.
Three hours later, it is back up to fifth, but now finds itself just under four minutes behind the #911 Porsche.
The sister #14 car, which was running fourth in the ninth hour, has suffered a worse night, though. Maro Engel had to be pushed back into the garage moments after the car’s fifth pit stop, when it stopped at the pit exit with a drivetrain issue.
The team’s mechanics worked hard under the car to get it firing again, before finally throwing in the towel with 15 hours on the clock.
It’s a similar story at Falken Motorsports, as both its cars have hit trouble too. Its chances of winning the race overall for the first time rest solely with the #44 crew as sunrise edges closer.
The #33 Porsche 911 GT3 R 992 was retired from the race by the fan-favourite team after Julien Andlauer’s heavy hit at Turn 2 just before the quarter mark.
Currently, Dennis Marschall is at the controls of the #44, but the car was heavily delayed by a right-rear puncture while running fourth in the 10th hour.
Dorian Boccolacci did well to nurse the car home, but it dropped to 10th when he re-emerged after a full-service stop and the removal of the wheel arch lining.
It has since climbed to ninth, but has just fallen off the lead lap.
Elsewhere, at 11:30 pm, Scherer Sport PHX’s N24 defence met a cruel end.
The team opted to withdraw its #1 Audi R8 LMS GT3 evo II from the race following an off for Luca Ludwig just after 10 pm local time. The car ended up in the barriers and sustained what looked like suspension damage on its trundle back to the pit lane.
Scherer Sport’s team manager, Ron Moser, confirmed that an electronics fault was to blame.
The early exit for the Audi added to what’s been a forgettable week for the team, in which its #16 Porsche was withdrawn from the event before the race began after Laurens Vanthoor wrote off the new 911 in an incident during Top Qualifying.
“It wasn’t our weekend, but we’ll come back stronger and attack again next year,” Moser said.
The #64 HRT Ford Mustang also failed to make it through the night. An incident for Frank Stippler at Flugplatz saw the car damaged beyond repair after 27 laps.
HRT team boss Ulrich Fritz explained: “The Red Flag helped us, we had established ourselves in the top 5. Now the accident happened, and the car was damaged and not worth repairing.
“But the important thing is that Frank Stippler is doing well. With the other two cars, we are well on the road in the Pro-Am, but there is still a long way to go. It is a huge dream for us to win here with a new brand. We do everything for this.
“It is still early in the project, and we did not have the perfect preparation either. This is a question of expectation management. But it’s a good start, the cars are fast.”
Thankfully for HRT and Ford, the #65 Mustang is enjoying a fine run, the car sitting seventh overall and leading SP 9 Pro/Am with 62 laps completed.
Lamborghini’s charge has also been blunted by a “small defect” to the #27 car, which the ABT team said forced Daniel Juncadella to take a short lap of the GP Loop and pit twice in quick succession during Hour 10. That issue initially dropped the Huracan to 11th. It has since recovered to 10th.
In the other classes, the best-placed car outside of SP 9 is the #948 Losch Porsche 911 GT3 Cup in Cup 2. It’s 16th overall.
Hyundai’s factory team still holds a 1-2 in TCR, with the #830 Elantra N TCR leading the #831 by just over three minutes after the latter suffered a puncture that cost it a chunk of time.
The GT4 battle in SP10 is currently controlled by the #187 FK Performance BMW M4 GT4.
SP 3T sees the new BMW M2 Racing operated by FK Performance firmly in control with a five-minute advantage.
The Dacia Logan, which is entered in SP 3T, ended up being towed to the pits with a clutch failure after 23 laps. It has since returned to the race after another stint in the garage, with its lap count grazing 30.
Images courtesy of Porsche & Frozenspeed
