An outstanding stint from Raffaele Marciello saw the #98 ROWE Racing BMW close in on the still-leading #911 Manthey Porsche in the hands of Kevin Estre as the race passed the 18-hour mark.
With dawn approaching, the #911 Manthey Porsche was still in a commanding position, Ayunchen Guven taking over from Kevin Estre just after the halfway mark.
Nine cars remained on the lead lap by 4 am, remarkably, the top seven were from seven different SP9 marques! Porsche leading Ferrari, BMW, Aston Martin, Lamborghini, Mercedes AMG and Ford.
The early hours saw a lead change in SP8T, the McLaren Arturo Trophy Evo that had led from the start overhauled by the #150 BMW M4 GT4 Evo pedalled by Manuel Metzger and the regular trio of gamers/ streamers, Steve Alvarez Brown, Jimmy Broadbent and Misha Charoudin, both cars lapping inside the overall top 30.
05:30 and there was drama for the best of the Aston Martins, the #34 Walkenhorst car of David Pittard running very slowly and dropping back from fourth place on what should have been an in-lap. Pittard briefly stopped after the Karussel before restarting and heading to the pits, dropping off the lead lap as he did so.
Sadly, the car was retired in the pits soon afterwards, Aston Martin’s race-winning hopes apparently done!
Second in Cup 2, the #918 Muhlner Porsche (18th overall) was in trouble just before 6 am with a rear right puncture after a brush with the barriers at Hatzenbach. Steve Salensky completed a slow lap back and dropped down the class order as the car was attended to.
In SP7, both the leading and second-placed cars were in trouble at the same time, 06:15 in the morning, and the leading #97 Porsche completed a slow-in lap with a damaged right rear wheel, retaining the lead after stopping and continuing in 44th place. The chasing #80 Cayman meanwhile had an off, but returned to the track apparently otherwise untroubled.
Making good progress in the morning was Jusuf Owega in the #65 HRT Ford Mustang, up to fifth overall by 06:20 and closing in on the #17 GetSpeed AMG ahead before pitting. Behind the Mustang and also lapping very quickly was Felipe Laser in the #45 Ferrari; he too was reeling in the AMG.
A big accident for the #169 SP10 (GT4) Aston Martin at around 06:50 saw a significant debris field (driver reported OK) that put an end to a period of full green rapid lap times.
By 8 am, a battle for third was well alight with Marco Mapelli’s #28 Abt Lamborghini fending off the ever-closer attentions of Ralf Aron’s #17 GetSpeed AMG.
The position (now fourth on rotation as the off-strategy Ferrari cycled by) finally changed soon after the pair completed their next pitstops, with Aron quicker on the draw as they passed a slow zone area at Turn 2, Aron ahead of Christian Engelhart now aboard the Lamborghini. The pair, though, continued nose to tail.
Moments later, the remaining (#44) Falken Porsche was in major trouble as the car came onto the Dottinger Hohe, a driveline issue stopping the car on the straight. The car was towed back to the pits, but Tim Heinemann was quoted shortly afterwards as saying the car was out of the race.
Throughout the hour the lead battle had been coming down, Marciello closing in on Thomas Preining, down to around 20 seconds before the #911 took on fresh rubber and edged the gap out over 30 seconds.
The second-place SP 3T Hyundai Elantra was pitched into the barriers after contact with the Lamborghini of Dani Juncadella as the pair cleared the incident site for the recovery of the stricken #268 Toyota Supra, the Korean car suffering significant damage.
8:50 and a major shunt for the #74 SP 10 class Aston Martin of Walkenhorst Motorsport, on the exit of Flügplatz, hard into the barriers. The car was heavily damaged and the incident also involved the #300 Dacia, the little SP 3T car in the barriers on driver’s left with the Aston smoking in the middle of the road. Both drivers are understood to be OK, but the race for the Logan is done.
At the same time, the #17 AMG was in trouble too, Ralf Aron pitting and the car into the garage and immediately tumbling down the order. It would rejoin in seventh and off the lead lap, six SP9 cars remain on the lead lap at 9 am.
And also in trouble was the third in AT3 #633 Cayman with a fire in the engine bay.
09:15 and the #17 was back into the garage, the AMG with attention being paid to the underside of the car. 20 minutes or more was lost before Lucas Auer rejoined, the challenge of AMG for the win, though, was effectively over.
Preining in the #911 then led from Engelhart (#28 Lamborghini), Marciello (#98 BMW), Neubauer (#45 Ferrari), Buus (#54 Porsche and Jusuf Owega (#65 Ford), all of the six on the lead lap.
Preining would end over to Kevin Estre, no sign yet of Patrick Pilet driving the leading car, at 09:20.
09:30 and Estre was pushing hard, because Marciello was closing the lead gap, down to around 20 seconds on lap 99 with Neubauer a further c.30 seconds back in third. The BMW is pitting a single lap earlier than the Manthey Porsche at present.
Marciello’s push was upping the tempo, taking a full nine seconds out of the leader on lap 99.
Image courtesy of Frozenspeed
