BMW, Audi Encounter Drama in Early Hours of Sunday

High-profile cars from Audi and BMW encountered trouble in the early hours of Sunday morning at the Nürburgring 24 as Frikadelli Racing Team continued to lead.

Both the No. 1 and No. 5 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo IIs, the quickest of which was driven by Frederic Vervisch, encountered oil on the Grand Prix circuit and crashed separately.

Several minutes later, the No. 99 ROWE Racing BMW M4 GT3 of Connor de Phillippi was eliminated from contention when it suffered front right damage after contact with a lower-category Porsche.

The No. 72 BMW Junior Team entry was also retired on Sunday morning after separate dramas for Daniel Harper and Max Hesse.

Frikadelli’s Ferrari 296 GT3, driven by David Pittard, held an advantage of over two and a half minutes over the No. 98 ROWE Racing BMW of Marco Wittmann.

Pittard took over the car from Felipe Fernandez Laser in the fifteenth hour and then set the car’s fastest lap of the race with a time of 8:09.549.

Behind them, Raffaele Marciello moved the No. 4 Mercedes-AMG Team Bilstein Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo into third place by overtaking Maximilian Goetz.

Marciello dispatched the No. 2 GetSpeed Mercedes-AMG halfway through hour sixteen, moving up the inside of the 2021 DTM champion at Hyundai N Kurve.

The Rutronik Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R of Matteo Cairoli rounded out of the top five, leading the No. 20 WTM by Rinaldi Racing Ferrari.

Ferrari’s other high-ranking car set the fastest overall race lap early on Sunday morning with Daniel Keilwitz clocking an 8:08.006 before stepping out for Indy Dontje.

The No. 161 KKraemer Racing Porsche 992 GT3 Cup led the Cup 2 category as the highest classified non-GT3 runner, while KCMG’s No. 47 ToyotaToyota GR Supra GT4 EVO sat out front in SP 10.