Nürburgring: The concept works 🎥

The highlights of the first race in two and a half minutes. This also includes Hirschi's spin in the Ferrari.

The season opener of the 2020 Nürburgring Endurance Series was the first motorsport event in Germany after the Corona Lockdown. Challenging conditions had to be mastered. However, the hygiene concept of the VLN - including a generously dimensioned outdoor pit lane in the paddock - was a complete success.

First ghost race over four hours
The fans also dutifully followed the request to please stay at home and watch the race on the livestream on the Internet. After this passed test, which also offered a lot of sporting variety, nothing stands in the way of the continuation of the NLS 2020 under special measures.

138 teams were willing to make these compromises already in practice. 132 started for the race over four hours, which began in light drizzle and ended in good weather.

Time penalty for the first Enables BMW victory
The Mercedes duo of Patrick Assenheimer and Maro Engel, who started from pole position, led for twelve of the 27 laps and saw the chequered flag first. However, the team made a mistake during the final pit stop, falling short of the minimum time. The 37-second penalty threw the two Germans back to second place.

The victory was inherited by David Pittard (GB) and Mikkel Jensen (DK) with the BMW M6 GT3 entered by Walkenhorst Motorsport. Third place, 39 seconds behind, went to another Mercedes team with Italian-Swiss Raffaele Marciello, who starts for Italy.

Satisfied Nico Müller
The three DTM drivers Nico Müller, Robin Frijns and René Rast were just over a minute off the overall winners' podium. The driver from Bern had advanced the Audi R8 LMS from Car Collection Motorsport to second place.

Nico Müller: "It was really good to get back into racing mode. I only drove in free practice on Friday and was thrown right into the deep end as the starting driver. We pitted one lap earlier than many others to get out of traffic and moved up from 11th to second place. I then overtook four opponents who were then ahead of us again after their stops in my second stint on the track. Robin and René then settled in 4th place. It was a good start, I'm very happy with the performance."

The DTM driver was also happy about the first race in the same team with Patric Niederhauser. He makes no secret of his desire to share a car with his Canton colleague at some point.

Niederhauser's strong premiere
As expected, "Nidi" cut a good figure in his first race as an Audi factory driver. Until Müller's first pit stop, the Nordschleife rookie was even ahead of the veteran. The Manthey Porsche and the Rowe BMW were behind him as well.

Patric Niederhauser: "I think I can be satisfied with my first race on the Nordschleife and as an Audi factory driver. A lap time of 8'03 in qualifying, with which I was still ahead of Rast, is certainly not bad for the first time. I've got to rethink now that I'm more or less a service provider and have to hand over the car completely. That's why I'm not risking too much."

His partners Milan Dontje (NL) and Mike David Ortmann (D) were not quite able to match the speed of the front runners and brought the second Audi R8 of Car Collection Motorsport - which, unlike the Michelin-tired car of the DTM pros, rolled on Goodyear tires - to the finish in tenth place overall.

Fast Swiss Ferrari
33 seconds and one place ahead of them, the Ferrari 488 GT3 of Björn Grossmann, Jonathan Hirschi, newcomer Luca Ludwig (with a view to the 24-hour race in September) and Simon Trummer crossed the finish line. Without a spin by the driver from Neuchâtel right after the start (see highlights), fifth place would have been possible for the Zurich team.

Grossmann set the third-fastest race lap of all the cars. Only two Mercedes were minimally faster.

Three Swiss class winners
With a Ferrari entered in the SP9-Am class and the Germans Michael Kohlhaas and Stephan Köhler as partners, Nikolaj Rogivue took the class victory over three GT3 competitors.

Three other Swiss drivers had it a little easier in their undermanned classes. Thus, Roland Schmid and Roger Vögeli won solo in the TCR-Am class with Michael Brüggenkamp on the Opel Astra TCR from Lubner Motorsport. All other TCR cars started in SP3T or TCR-Pro.

Also alone in his class was Herbie Schmidt with PSA Group boss Carlos Tavares and another Frenchman on an Opel Astra OPC.

Up to speed with alternative fuel
Marco Timbal shared a Porsche Cayman 982 GT4 CS from the alternative drive AT(-G) class in the team of and with musician "Smudo" and Matthias Beckwermert.

The car runs on a gasoline blend containing 20% ethanol derived from biomass. After the early retirement of the slower Ford Mustang, they were on their own for the class win.

The BMW M4 GT4 fielded by Hofor Racing by Bonk Motorsport under Swiss entry license won the SP10 class with Michael Schrey (D), Michael Fischer (A) and Gabriele Piana (I). The seven opponents included, for the first time, a team with the Toyota Supra GT4, newly homologated for 2020, whose fastest race lap was still 17 seconds off the winning team's class best time.

It was enough for a midfield finish (6th) for Gustavo Xavier, one of the three 2017 Young Driver finalists, and his two German partners in the highly competitive BMW M240i Racing Cup class.

You can find the complete class results here.

vln.com