Winward Lead Battle Continues at End of Hour 9

The Winward Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evos continued their private battle for the lead of the Nürburgring 24 as nine hours of the race were completed, while more top contenders were forced out.

The No. 3 Verstappen Racing machine continued to lead throughout the seventh hour but lost out to the sister No. 80 Ravenol- backed Mercedes-AMG at the start of eighth hour as Luca Stolz passed Lucas Auer on the Dottinger Hohe.

But the gap between the pair continued to be small until the seventh round of pit stops when Dani Juncadella took over from Auer and emerged nine seconds behind his stablemate.

However, Juncadella soon eradicated that deficit and was right on the bumper of Stolz midway through the ninth hour.

When Stolz was delayed by backmarkers out of the final corner, Juncadella pounced to grab the place along the pit straight.

But the pair swapped again as the clock struck midnight local time, with Stolz enjoying a 1.029-second advantage over Juncadella at the nine-hour point.

Behind, another couple of key contenders suffered woe, including for the No. 44 Falken Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo that had risen to fourth spot but Morris Schuring then crashed in the ninth hour at Flugpatz when he was caught out by a backmarker.

Another car that hit a BMW Z4 GT3 backmarker was the No. 1 ROWE Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO with Raffaele Marciello at the wheel but it was not damage from this, instead a problem with the fuel tank, that forced the car that triumphed last year into retirement.

Instead up to third was the sister No. 99 ROWE machine, while the No. 34 Walkenhorst Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo continued to run strongly in fourth, but was approaching three minutes behind the Winward cars.

The No. 81 BMW M3 Touring 24h continued to perform well in fifth, while sixth was held by the No. 26 PROsport Racing Mercedes-AMG as just ten cars remained on the lead lap.