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Nürburgring Endurance

Bamber in Front With Six Hours Left; Mercedes-AMGs Switch

Frikadelli’s Earl Bamber holds healthy lead over No. 98 ROWE Racing BMW

Photo: Gruppe C Photography

Earl Bamber led the Nürburgring 24 for Frikadelli Racing Team with six hours of racing to go, holding a lead of nearly three minutes to the chasing ROWE Racing BMW.

Bamber took over the No. 30 Ferrari 296 GT3 from David Pittard at the start of the race’s 18th hour and kept the car at the head of the field.

Sheldon van der Linde, driving the No. 98 ROWE Racing BMW M4 GT3, stood two minutes and 45 seconds behind the New Zealander in second position.

Frikadelli ran effectively trouble-free since the halfway point, although Bamber escaped a frightening moment when he took to the grass at Stefan-Bellof-S in avoidance of a slower car.

Both the No. 30 Ferrari and the No. 98 BMW underwent brake changes on Sunday morning.

Mercedes-AMG entries from GetSpeed and Haupt Racing Team, meanwhile, battled over the final podium spot.

Fabian Schiller held third place aboard the No. 2 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo at the 18-hour mark, having swapped positions with the No. 4 Bilstein-HRT car of Luca Stolz.

Stolz held third place since co-driver Raffaele Marciello overtook the No. 2 machine at Hyundai N Curve early on Sunday morning, but the two Mercedes-AMGs reverted positions after the most recent round of pit stops.

The No. 96 Rutronik Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R of Julien Andlauer completed the top five, ahead of the No. 20 WTM by Rinaldi Racing Ferrari.

Christopher Mies, driving the No. 39 Audi Sport Team Land Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II, ran as the leading Audi in seventh position with the No. 6 HRT Mercedes-AMG of Arjun Maini eighth.

The No. 44 Falken Motorsports Porsche, which ran in the top ten since the halfway point, fell away due to a puncture with Tim Heinemann at the wheel.

The No. 161 KKraemer Racing Porsche 992 GT3 Cup continued to lead in Cup 2, while the SP 10 lead was held by the No. 47 KCMG Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO driven by Josh Burdon.

Davey Euwema is Sportscar365's European Editor. Based in The Netherlands, Euwema covers the FIA World Endurance Championship, European Le Mans Series and Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS, among other series.

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