Black Falcon Leads as Rain Arrives, Dumas Crashes Out

Photo: Audi

The No. 4 Black Falcon Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Manuel Metzger leads the Nürburgring with 11 hours remaining, following drama-filled overnight hours that has seen the arrival of rain and the pole-sitting Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 R crash out.

Having dominated the race from the start, the No. 911 Porsche retired in the 10th hour following an accident by Romain Dumas, who lost control just after Pflanzgarten after going past a slower car.

The car had also faced a time penalty for a Code 60 infraction.

It handed the lead to the No. 4 Mercedes, which along with Manthey’s sister No. 912 Porsche, have swapped positions back and forth in the hours since.

Rain, meanwhile, arrived around 2 a.m. local time and intensified as the race reached the halfway mark, with thunderstorms and potentially high winds and hail in the forecast for later today.

A number of other SP9-GT3 contenders have hit trouble, including the No. 98 ROWE Racing BMW M6 GT3 of John Edwards, who stopped on track in Hour 13.

Moments earlier, the No. 47 HTP Motorsport Mercedes of Daniel Juncadella was also stranded on track with damage to his car after running in the top-three.

It promoted the No. 007 Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 of Marco Sorensen to third, ahead of the best-placed Audi, the No. 1 Land Audi R8 LMS of Christopher Mies in fourth.

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John