24H Nürburgring: 20th triumph for BMW 🎥
PACE 5 FOR NICO MÜLLER The Nürburgring 24-hour race, which was affected by cold, wet weather and interrupted during the night, ended with the 20th victory for a BMW team. The at times leading Audi with Nico Müller finished in 5th place. The 6-minute summary shows the partly apocalyptic conditions that made for many a dramatic scene. From 10:32 p.m. on Saturday evening until [...]
The 6-minute summary shows the sometimes apocalyptic conditions that made for many a dramatic scene.
From 10:32 p.m. on Saturday evening until 8 a.m. on Sunday morning, nothing worked for almost nine and a half hours. Previously, the Eifel weather in 1992, 1994, 2007, 2013, 2016 and 2018 had given fans, organizers and teams a forced break.
Swiss Ferrari briefly in the lead
Beforehand, there had been plenty of spectacle in continuous rain of varying intensity and difficult track conditions. The first leader was Jonathan Hirschi from Neuchâtel in the Ferrari 488 GT3 of Octane126 from Wallisellen, who started from 2nd place.
However, the disadvantage of the Goodyear tires compared to the Michelin-tired competition became immediately apparent. Shortly after the turn onto the Nordschleife, the Ferrari slipped to 26th place and then never found its way back to the front of the field.
Interruption after accidents
Raffaele Marciello was the first to squeeze past Hirschi in one of the optimal Mercedes-AMGs. The Ticino native was later eliminated in an accident in the rain, as was Manuel Metzger, the Thurgau native by choice, in another Mercedes.
Not least of all, these accidents due to conditions that were no longer reasonable for the low-slung GT3 sports cars caused the red flag. At this point (Overall classification at abort), three Audi R8 LMS cars were in front, led by Nico Müller's car.
20th BMW victory since 1970
With a strong showing on Sunday morning, one of Rowe Racing's two BMW M6 GT3s had positioned itself perfectly and then made the right decision with 1:45 hours to go in another rain shower.
With a quick change to rain tires, Nicky Catsburg pushed past two Audi cars in front of him, including that of Nico Müller. The Dutchman then brought home the Saarland team's first victory safely under pressure from Christopher Haase's Audi.
50 years after its success at the premiere of the Eifel Marathon in 1970, the Munich brand thus prevailed for the 20th time, which is a record. The last BMW triumph came in 2010 with the Schnitzer team coming third this time. Second place went to the ultimately fastest Audi from Car Collection Motorsport.
No second victory for Nico Müller
In the battle for victory, last year's winner Audi had two more irons in the fire. However, two of the three R8 LMS cars received a 32-second penalty on Sunday morning.
The #1 entered by Phonix Racing with Nico Müller, Frank Stippler, Dries Vanthoor and Frédéric Vervisch received it due to a mistake on the exit from the pit lane. From 12th place, the quartet fought its way back up, led for a time and finally finished the race in 5th place after Vanthoor made contact with a guard rail and then changed tires in the closing stages.
Müller, who won in 2015, was thus the best-placed Swiss driver in the 48th edition of this race. Only 70 of 97 teams that started - fewer than at any time since 1976, when the race, which is only contested by production cars, was also held so late in the fall - finished in classification.
