As the 2026 Nürburgring 24 Hours crosses over the half-way mark, Winward Racing and its pair of Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVOs are firmly in control at the head of the field, having maintained the advantage they seized during the evening rainfall.
The #3 Verstappen Racing entry, with Verstappen currently behind the wheel, leads, 4.966 seconds ahead of Maxime Martin’s Ravenol-branded #80 car.
Although this is the same order that they ran after six hours, the two cars have been free to race, and have swapped the lead between themselves six times since the sun set over the Nürburgring Nordschleife.
The most recent pass came at the start of the last hour, with Verstappen getting a run down the Dottinger Hohe and clearing Martin’s co-driver Maro Engel on the approach to Tiegarten.
One lap later, Winward Racing was offered a clear reminder as to why many teams in their position would adopt team orders, as Engel went across the grass at the same section as he attempted to reclaim the lead through traffic.
The #34 Walkenhorst Motorsport Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 Evo is in a comfortable third, almost three minutes off the lead, but with a similar margin over the fourth-place #99 ROWE Racing BMW M4 GT3 Evo.
One potential problem for the Aston Martin, however, is that it is struggling to consistently run eight lap stints, with it on track to need an extra pit stop compared to its rivals across the 24 hours.
The #81 BMW M Motorsport M3 Touring 24H is still sitting strong in fifth overall, ahead of the recovering #84 Red Bull Team Abt Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2, which currently possesses the fastest lap of the race.
Lionspeed GP’s #24 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992.2) is in seventh following a consistent run so far, with the #67 HRT Ford Racing Mustang GT3 Evo, #54 Dinamic GT Porsche and SP 9 Pro-Am #48 48Losch Motorsport by Black Falcon Porsche completing both the top 10 and the lead lap runners.
The chances of ROWE Racing’s #1 BMW securing back-to-back victories disappeared at the end of the eighth hour, when the car was pushed back into the garage to address a reoccurring refuelling issue. After 20 minutes of work, it was then wheeled out of the back of the garage, and into retirement.
With the #47 Mercedes-AMG of Jesse Krohn having retired earlier on, the streak of no driver defending their overall victory since 2009 is therefore already guaranteed to continue for another year.
The #44 Falken Motorsports Porsche was the next contender to fall by the wayside, after an incident for Morris Schuring in hour nine. The Dutchman was running fourth when he mounted a kerb whilst in traffic, and impacted the outside wall. Schuring attempted to limp the car back to the pits, but the Schanbl Engineering outfit which runs the Porsche requested that he pulled off and into retirement.
Things got worse for Schnabl at the start of the 11th hour, when Alessio Picariello had a heavy accident aboard its #17 Dunlop Motorsport-entered Porsche shortly after entering the top 10. The Belgian placed two wheels on the grass as he attempted to lap slower traffic approaching Bergwerk, but still made contact, which speared him into the outside wall and retirement.
And the most recent SP 9 Pro car to run into trouble was the #7 Konrad Motorsport Lamborghini, after Pavel Lefterov stopped at Hatzenbach towards the start of Hour 12.
This attrition in SP 9 Pro has allowed the leading contenders from the lower classes to move into increasing prominence.
In SP 9 Pro-Am, the #48 Porsche has established a comfortable lead of almost three minutes over the #11 SR Motorsport by Schnitzelalm Mercedes-AMG, with the #18 Lionspeed GP Porsche sitting third.
The defending class winner, the #65 HRT Ford, ended its victory defence when David Schumacher stopped out on circuit, whilst the #86 High Class Racing Porsche fell back from the podium battle when Harry King was stranded in the gravel at the Goodyear Hairpin in Hour 10.
The #5 Black Falcon Team EAE Porsche leads SP 9 Am, whilst the best car from Starting Group 2, the #900 Black Falcon Team Zimmerman Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, is up to 23rd overall.
The best of the HWA EVO.Rs, the #61 entry, currently sits second in SP-X in 29th overall.
Image courtesy of Mercedes-AMG Motorsport
