GetSpeed Holding Upper Hand After Six Hours

The No. 2 entry from Mercedes-AMG Team GetSpeed held the upper hand six hours into the Nürburgring 24 after Frikadelli Racing Team lost ground with a puncture.

While Frikadelli Ferrari driver Felipe Fernandez Laser sat 22.3 seconds clear of Fabian Schiller in the No. 2 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo at the six-hour mark, he pitted soon after to relinquish the lead.

The Ferrari has been running off-sequence since Nicky Catsburg suffered a left-rear puncture at the end of hour five while in the lead of the race, resulting in a stint that was two laps shorter than usual.

The No. 2 Mercedes-AMG took advantage and assumed the race lead, which came after the car moved into contention thanks to a charging stint from Adam Christodoulou.

The Brit closed in on the battling pair of Luca Stolz and Daniel Juncadella, with the three Mercedes-AMGs engaged in a battle at the end of the fourth hour that saw Juncadella drop from second to fourth within a lap.

As the race entered its fifth hour, the No. 2 car in the hands of Schiller moved into second place and captured the race lead when Catsburg suffered his puncture.

The early darkness saw cars from BMW and Audi move into podium contention, with Ricardo Feller running third overall aboard the No. 1 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II.

With 18 hours to go, Marco Wittmann held fourth aboard the No. 98 ROWE Racing BMW M4 GT3, while the No. 4 Mercedes-AMG has dropped to fifth in the hands of Philip Ellis.

Mercedes-AMG Team GetSpeed’s Jules Gounon was close behind in sixth, ahead of the WTM by Rinaldi Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 and the No. 44 Falken Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R.

The No. 101 Walkenhorst Motorsport BMW fell away when Andy Soucek made contact with a backmarker and damaged the car’s steering.

The highest non-GT3 runner after six hours was the No. 123 Muehlner Motorsport Porsche 992 GT3 Cup in the hands of Alex Brundle, who held the class lead Cup 2 and sat in 30th place overall.

Manuel Lauck led TCR aboard the No. 830 Hyundai Elantra TCR, one position ahead of the SP 10-leading No. 87 FK Performance Motorsport BMW M4 GT4 of Nick Hancke.