ROWE BMW Takes Lead With Three Hours to Go

ROWE Racing took the lead of the Nürburgring 24 from Manthey EMA with just over three hours to go, while the No. 911 Porsche 911 GT3 R has also been given a penalty for an incident with a backmarker.

The No. 98 BMW M4 GT3 EVO, with Augusto Farfus at the wheel, overtook the No. 911 car after drafting past on the Dottinger Hohe coming out of a Code 60.

This came after a dramatic turn of events that saw the No. 911 machine involved in a collision with a slower car that has since resulted in a penalty.

While under pressure from the No. 98 BMW, driven by Raffaele Marciello at the time, Kevin Estre collided with the No. 179 Doerr Motorsport Aston Martin Vantage GT4 between Kallenhard and Wehrseifen.

The contact pitched the Aston Martin into the barriers, subsequently flipping onto its roof after hitting the guardrail.

The driver of the Aston Martin, Rolf Scheibner, walked away from the incident under his own power, while the No. 911 Porsche was given a 100-second penalty for incident responsibility.

The No. 28 ABT Sportsline Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 ran third with Luca Engstler at the wheel, with the No. 54 Dinamic GT Porsche and No. 65 Ford Mustang GT3 also in contention for the remaining spot on the podium.

Notably, the No. 45 Realize Kondo Racing with Rinaldi Ferrari 296 GT3 was eliminated with three and half hours to go after getting caught up in an incident with the No. 101 BMW 325i.

The class lead in both Cup2 and TCR remains unchanged, with the No. 48 Porsche 992 GT3 Cup and No. 830 Hyundai Elantra N TCR out front in each of their respective classes.