Attendance Record Smashed
The weekend’s official attendance was 352,000, a new record for the Nürburgring 24 Hours.
For reference, the previous record was set last year, at 280,000 spectators.
Engel and Martin retain IGTC lead
With wins at both Bathurst and the Nürburgring, Maro Engel and Maxime Martin are currently on a perfect 50 points in this year’s Intercontinental GT Challenge.
Their N24 co-driver Luca Stolz sits second, 17 point behind, with BMW’s Max Hesse third of the rest on 30 points.
With Lamborghini and Aston Martin not registered for the IGTC, Hesse’s #99 BMW earned second-place IGTC points at the ‘Ring despite finishing fourth overall. The #24 Lionspeed GP Porsche completed the IGTC podium.
Mikaël Grenier, who entered the Nürburgring in the championship lead having competed alongside Engel and Martin at Bathurst, has fallen to fourth after his #26 PROsport Racing Mercedes-AMG retired on Sunday morning.
In the manufacturers’ standings, Mercedes-AMG has extended its advantage over Porsche to nine points, with BMW a further two points behind in third.
And in the Independent Cup, Kerong Li earned maximum points by finishing aboard the #86 Porsche. Li now has a 32-point advantage over Kenny Habul, and also still has his dropped score to play, whilst all of his rivals used theirs by skipping the Nürburgring 24.
The next IGTC event is the 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, on 25th to 28th June 2026. Engel and Martin, notably, are entered in separate Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVOs.
Spa-Francorchamps, incidentally, is where many SP 9 competitors are heading immediately from the Nürburgring, with the 24 Hours of Spa Prologue test taking place this upcoming Tuesday and Wednesday.
Drudi:”We maximised our package” with podium run
Walkenhorst Motorsport scored its, and Aston Martin’s, first outright podium finish at the event following a mistake-free run for the #34 Vantage AMR GT3 Evo of Mattia Drudi, Christian Krognes and Nicki Thiim.
The #34 Aston Martin ended up third, although looked on-course for second until Drudi caught a Code 60 on the final lap of the race, which gave the #84 Abt Lamborghini the margin it needed to overcome its time penalty – that scored Lamborghini their first overall podium at the N24 too.
“I think we maximised our package,” Drudi told DSC.
“It’s been a really tough 24-hour race. I think we did some really good strategy calls on Saturday. The last stint as well, with the intermediate tyres, was a good call, slightly more rain would have helped even more, but in the end we are happy.”
Those strategy calls started from the off, with Nicki Thiim running a pair of shorter stints at the beginning of the race to give the Aston Martin track position. This matters at the Nürburgring 24 Hours, because the closer you are to the front the more likely you are to be disrupted by the same Code 60s as the leader.
“It’s very important here to get track position because you’re in the same rhythm of the Code 60,” Drudi explained.
“We could see later into the race that the two Mercedes’ always had an advantage getting over the Code 60. There was always something happening in between [us], so they could increase their gap more.”
The 27-year-old credited his Walkenhorst Motorsport team with making the correct tyre call in the closing stages, since the size and unpredictability of the Nordschleife compared to other venues makes it much more difficult than normal for a driver to make a decision based on feel.
“I asked the team which tyres to go on, because they have the radar and the on-board cameras from all the other cars,” he said.
“It’s just a shame that it didn’t rain slightly more on the last lap, because the second-to-last lap was the one that rained the most. We gained a lot on the [#84] Lamborghini and the [fourth-place #99 ROWE] BMW, and then at the end, the last lap was a bit drier. We still had the second place, but I found a bit too much traffic, and a Code 60 at the end of the lap.”
HRT Ford Racing “could have fought for the podium” without delays
HRT Ford Racing was unable to match its fourth-place finish from last year, although all three of its Mustang GT3 Evos showed promising pace.
The #67 Ford led the race early on before falling back in the wet conditions, with a puncture subsequently ending any potential podium challenge for Christopher Mies, Dennis Olsen and Frédéric Vervisch, as they came home seventh after falling out of top-10 overnight.
“We showed great potential,” Mies said.
“The Mustang GT3 felt really good when I drove into the night and Sunday morning. I was really happy with the car, with the balance, everything was good. We were a bit unlucky with the Code 60s and the puncture this morning, which put us on the back foot. I think we could have fought for the podium, but it is what it is.”
BMW’s risk management focus almost delivers podium finish
BMW came up short of successfully defending its Nürburgring 24 Hours title, but was the only marque to place multiple cars in the top seven following a consistent run from its factory-supported entries.
The ROWE Racing-run #1 BMW M4 GT3 Evo retired with a refuelling problem, but the other three cars all finished in the top 10. RWOE’s sister #99 entry led the charge in fourth, one position ahead of the #81 M3 Touring 24H, whilst Schubert Motorsport’s #77 M4 GT3 Evo rebounded to ninth after losing time overnight with what driver Robin Frijns simply referred to as a “gamble”.
“As we knew that it would be difficult for us on pure pace, we clearly talked to the drivers beforehand to manage the risk, to keep the cars in one piece, and this is what we did,” Andreas Roos, Head of BMW M Motorsport, said post-race.
“All the cars, except the one with a technical issue, survived without a mistake on the track.”
In a case of what could have been, the #99 BMW ended up only 17.324 seconds off the podium, despite effectively started the race from the back of the SP 9 field after Dan Harper was spun just six corners into the race, in the only notable piece of contact any of the three cars experienced.
Flagging miscommunication to blame for Krohn and Sims’ accident
An attritional Saturday evening saw several key contenders retire in the early running. Amongst them were the #47 KCMG Mercedes-AMG and #16 Scherer Sport PHX Audi which were running nose-to-tail when confusion around a Code 60 zone saw them collide.
“I was driving in a group when we reached a double yellow zone,” Scherer Sport PHX’s Alexander Sims explained.
“When the green flag was waved behind it, we accelerated again. However, a Code 60 zone followed immediately after. Whilst the drivers in front of us were still able to react, I had no chance in this accordion-like situation and ran into the car in front of me.”
“Iit was very disappointing for it to end that way,” stated KCMG’s Jesse Krohn, who was driving the #47 AMG directly in front of Sims. “There was nothing we could’ve done differently to avoid the incident.”
The stewards decreed the accident a racing incident.
