ROWE BMW Wins N24 After Manthey Penalty

Augusto Farfus, Jesse Krohn, Raffaele Marciello and Kelvin van der Linde won the 53rd running of the Nürburgring 24 despite finishing second on the road, as Manthey EMA was demoted to second after taking the checkered flag first due to a penalty for a collision with a backmarker.

The No. 98 ROWE Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO initially crossed the line behind the Porsche 911 GT3 R, but the finishing order was changed as a 100-second penalty for a collision with the No. 179 Doerr Motorsport Aston Martin Vantage GT4 was applied.

The Grello-liveried Porsche was penalized amidst a dramatic closing phase in the second round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge that for a significant portion was dominated by Manthey.

The No. 911 car, shared between Kevin Estre, Ayhancan Guven and Thomas Preining, started from pole position and led the opening hour before a power cut in the pits caused the race to be red-flagged midway through hour two.

Although the No. 45 Realize Kondo Racing with Rinaldi Ferrari 296 GT3 was leading at the time of the red flag, the No. 911 Porsche led the restart amidst a grid reshuffle after accumulated minimum pitstop times were included in the result of the red flag.

From there, Manthey laid down a dominant performance that saw the No. 911 machine build a gap of more than two minutes at the halfway point.

However, as Sunday dawned, the No. 98 ROWE BMW chipped away at the lead gap, with especially strong stints from Van der Linde and then Marciello bringing the car back into the lead battle.

With just under six hours to go, Marciello closed to within striking distance of Estre when the No. 911 Porsche made contact with the No. 179 Aston Martin between Kallenhard and Wehrseifen.

This pitched the GT4 car into the barriers, landing on its roof. The driver, Rolf Scheibner, was taken to hospital for precautionary checks.

Race control initially handed out a 100-second penalty to the No. 911 car for the incident, which was not immediately served as Manthey was understood to be appealing the decision.

In the meantime, the two cars had traded the lead back and forth on track with Farfus initially passing Guven on the Dottinger Hohe before a Code 60 in the middle of a pit cycle allowing the No. 911 car to recapture the lead.

It would remain there until the end of the race, taking the checkered flag first but dropping behind the BMW when the penalty was added to the No. 911 machine’s total race time after Manthey’s protest was rejected.

As a result, BMW claimed a record-extending 21st overall N24 win, while the Motorsport Competence Group-run ROWE team won for the first time since 2020.

The No. 54 Dinamic GT Porsche of Loek Hartog, Matteo Cairoli, Bastian Buus and Joel Sturm completed the podium after an issue during the final stop dropped the No. 28 ABT Sportline Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 of Marco Mapelli, Christian Engelhart and Luca Engstler back to fifth.

The Lamborghini initially regained fourth by passing the No. 65 Ford Mustang GT3 of Dennis Fetzer, David Schumacher, Salman Owega and Jusuf Owega on the final lap.

However, a 32-second post-race penalty for causing a collision reversed the positions, with the Ford fourth as HRT Ford Performance secured a top-five finish for the Blue Oval upon the Mustang GT3’s N24 debut, also winning the Pro-Am class in the process.

The No. 84 Eastalent Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II finished sixth ahead of the No. 37 PROsport Aston Martin Vantage GT3.

The overall top ten was completed by the No. 7 Konrad Motorsport Lamborghini, No. 55 Hankook Motorsport Porsche and No. 786 Renazzo Motorsport Team Lamborghini.

In Cup2, the No. 948 48 LOSCH Motorsport by Black Falcon Porsche 992 GT3 Cup of Tobias Mueller, Noah Nagelsdiek, Dylan Pereira and Carlos Rivas completed a dominant run to win the class in 11th overall.

Hyundai Motorsport took a fifth consecutive TCR class victory with its No. 830 Elantra N TCR driven by Manuel Lauck, Marc Basseng and Christer Joens.

Race of Attrition Strikes GT3 Contenders

A race full of attrition notably took out top SP9 contenders across the field, including a double retirement for Mercedes-AMG.

Both of the Mercedes-AMG Team GetSpeed cars failed to make the finish, with the No. 14 car retiring due to a differential failure while the sister No. 17 machine fell after suspension issues led to a broken floor on Sunday morning.

The purple-liveried car did complete the final lap of the race as a symbolic gesture however, finishing 75th overall.

The two Falken Motorsports Porsches also retired, with the No. 33 car taken out after a collision with the No. 94 Sante Royale Racing Team Porsche at Turn 1.

Drivetrain issues, meanwhile, caused the No. 44 sister car to ground to a halt on the Dottinger Hohe in hour 17.

A fuel filter issue caused the No. 34 Walkenhorst Motorsport Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo be parked, while a late gearbox problem struck the No. 27 Red Bull Team ABT Lamborghini.

The No. 1 Scherer Sport PHX Audi, which was the team’s only car after the No. 16 Porsche was withdrawn following a qualifying crash, was retired after an electrical failure pitched Luca Ludwig into the wall overnight.

Meanwhile, the No. 45 Kondo Racing Ferrari, which looked to be a contender for the podium on an off-sequence strategy, initially lost ground with a puncture before it was taken out in a collision with the No. 101 BMW 325i.