ABT Lamborghini Out Front After Six Hours

Red Bull Team ABT driver Kelvin van der Linde held the lead in the Nürburgring 24 with six hours of racing completed, as the arrival of rain forced the teams into making important decisions on tire strategy.

The No. 27 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 sat roughly a minute clear of the No. 72 BMW M4 GT3 of Charles Weerts with 18 hours left to go, although both cars were expected in for a scheduled stop soon.

That was set to promote the No. 16 Scherer Sport PHX Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II of Frank Stippler back to the lead of the race, as the German veteran ran third ahead of Ayhancan Guven’s No. 911 Manthey EMA Porsche 911 GT3 R.

The Audi has been the effective race leader ever since the No. 99 ROWE Racing BMW was eliminated in a crash for Sheldon van der Linde during the fourth hour.

As darkness fell over the Nürburgring, the return of rain led the teams in the lead of the race to opt for varying tire strategies, with the No. 16 Audi at the head of a group of cars that switched to wet tires.

That group also included the factory-backed Mercedes-AMG entries, with Daniel Juncadella putting in a charging drive up to as high as second aboard the No. 4 Mercedes-AMG Team Bilstein entry before dropping back in the pitstop cycle.

The No. 27 Lamborghini and No. 72 BMW both initially opted for cut slicks when the rain arrived, while the No. 911 Porsche and both Falken Motorsports entries remained on slicks, although Manthey later switched to wets when Guven took over from Laurens Vanthoor.

The ‘Grello’ Porsche was briefly under investigation for disrespect of flag signals in a moment involving Vanthoor earlier in the race, although has since been cleared.

Guven ran fourth behind Stippler at the six-hour mark, ahead of Augusto Farfus, Juncadella, Adam Christodoulou and the No. 44 Falken Porsche of Martin Ragginger.

The No. 1 Frikadelli Racing Team Ferrari 296 GT3 rounded out the top ten with Felipe Fernandez Laser at the wheel.