No. 2 GetSpeed Leads on Nine Hours But Teammate Retires

Mercedes-AMG Team GetSpeed’s No. 2 car cycled into the lead of the Nürburgring 24 at the nine-hour mark after its sister car retired following contact with a backmarker.

Adam Christodoulou took the top spot from Leo Weiss who pitted the WTM by Rinaldi Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 at the end of lap 60, releasing the British driver’s Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo and the chasing BMW M4 GT3s from Max Hesse and Connor De Phillippi.

Weiss moved ahead of Christodoulou in the ninth hour, as part of a sustained climb through the top ten from one of the two Ferraris.

The pair then continued to battle around the Nordschleife as the RMG-run Junior Team and the No. 99 ROWE Racing BMW closed in.

Frikadelli Racing Team also remained in the hunt with its off-sequence Ferrari, which established a rhythm of cycling into the lead after each pit stop for the No. 2 Mercedes-AMG.

At each of those cycles, the No. 30 Ferrari spent more time at the head of the field than the No. 2 Mercedes-AMG.

While last year’s runner-up GetSpeed had one of its entries in the hunt for overall honors, the teammate No. 3 car retired in the seventh hour.

Contact between Maro Engel and a backmarker at the Stefan Bellof-S left the ‘Beast of the Green Hell’ liveried machine with a broken right-rear shock absorber.

Engel returned to the track briefly after some repairs but was soon back in the garage where the car was withdrawn.

Defending N24 winner Audi Sport Team Scherer PHX had also been shaping up to be an overnight contender when it was hit with three penalties for Frederic Vervisch ignoring yellow flag signals earlier in the race.

The trio amounted to a 4-minute, 36-second stop and hold which was served by Ricardo Feller, immediately after an entertaining duel with ROWE BMW driver Sheldon van der Linde.

The No. 98 ROWE car also came under investigation for a penalty for overtaking under a yellow flag, however the stewards cleared van der Linde of any fault.