24H Nürburgring: Blown-up Bernese duo

HOW THE SWISS Fared Nico Müller and Patric Niederhauser's first 24-hour race together at the Nürburgring fell victim to the weather. Why this was the case and what other Swiss drivers experienced is described in the review. As mentioned in the current report, Raffaele Marciello from Ticino (3rd), driving under the Italian flag, and Nico Müller in fifth [...]

Editorial - 10 June 2021

Manuel Metzger was well on his way to a second victory after 2016, but the Mercedes of the Swiss by choice retired on Sunday afternoon (Photo: Gruppe C Photography).

As mentioned in the current report, Raffaele Marciello from Ticino (3rd), driving under the Italian flag, and Nico Müller in fifth place were the top-ranked Swiss drivers at the 49th ADAC 24 Hours Nürburgring 2021.

Bad luck for the Thurgau native
The best competitor from Switzerland could have been German Manuel Metzger, who has long been at home in the canton of Thurgau. After the most lead laps of all 122 competitors on Saturday, the Mercedes-AMG GT3 driven by Maro Engel at the re-start dropped out of the race after three laps in second place on Sunday due to a violent accident while lapping. Metzger won the 2016 race with Mercedes.

From far behind almost on the podium
The two Swiss Audi GT factory drivers experienced a roller coaster ride of emotions. The R8 LMS from Audi Sport Team Car Collection entrusted to Christopher Haase, Nico Müller and Markus Winkelhock, like several other candidates for victory, fell far behind in the opening phase that was affected by mixed weather due to the wrong tire choice and an additional stop for changing.

The two Bernese were together in the race only as lettering on the Audi #2 (photo: Adrian Zumstein).

The driver trio tackled Sunday's sprint over three and a half hours in 17th position overall. As the Audi was on the same lap as the leaders who had been waved off at the red light the night before, the gap had thus practically melted to zero. In the end, less than four seconds were missing the podium.

Niederhauser only on one car
Although Patric Niederhauser regretted this for his Bernese Audi colleague, he was not entirely unhappy about it on the inside. "Nidi" would have been scheduled as the fourth driver for number 2, but the team signed him off in the course of the first half of the race because, as a result of the short race duration, the minimum driving and resting time of four drivers would hardly have been met and would have put him at a strategic disadvantage.

"Nidi" himself, as the starting driver in the second Audi #24 of this team, was one of the victims when the starting rain set in. At the Schwedenkreuz, he spun helplessly like several others due to aquaplaning, hitting the guardrails slightly. The time loss was greater than the damage, but a top position in the Pro-Am classification (7th) of the top class SP9 was out of the question after that.

Patric Niederhauser only competed in the Audi R8 #24 and soon played no role in the top positions (Photo: Adrian Zumstein).

Early exit for the Swiss Ferrari
Alex Fontana, whose Konrad Motorsport Lamborghini Huracán started from row 1, did not fare much better at the marathon premiere on the Nordschleife, finishing 17th overall and fourth in the Pro-Am.

At least they got to drive, which was not the case for three of the four Octane 126 drivers. Jonathan Hirschi soon moved up from P16 to P10 in the starting phase when the hydraulic line burst after the fifth lap as a result of a pure material fault on the Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo, causing the power steering to fail.

The crew from Wallisellen was able to replace the defective parts within 40 minutes, but they detected consequential damage in the steering system, which made continuing the race unacceptable for safety reasons. Simon Trummer was therefore able to drive home without having achieved anything, as were his German teammates Luca Ludwig and Björn Grossmann.

The Ferrari from Octane 126 had to go into the pit garage in the first hour of the race - and did not return to the track from there (Photo: Adrian Zumstein).

Time crunch for four riders
The fact that even crossing the finish line did not automatically mean that everyone had put in a lot of effort was evident in the case of Team FK Motorsport, which won the V2T class. Ranko Mijatovic only got in a stint on Saturday evening until the stop, Miklas Born on Sunday afternoon. The rest on the BMW 330i completed the two German teammates. Nevertheless, everyone should be happy about the biggest trophy, as the conditions were tricky throughout.

In the same class, Sven Friesecke finished 7th in a VW Golf GTI VII, Herbie Schmidt 8th in an Opel Astra OPC and Fabienne Wohlwend - after moving up to third intermediate place on Saturday - 9th. Her team slipped back from a safe fifth to last class position on Sunday due to a broken rear wheel and suspension failure.

The electronic steering system developed by Schaeffler worked flawlessly in Philip Ellis' Mercedes-AMG GT3. This gave it victory in SP-X over the Glickenhaus sports car (photo: Adrian Zumstein).

Cheers for Ellis and the Kroll family
We already mentioned the other Swiss class winners - Philip Ellis on a Mercedes-AMG GT3 with steer-by-wire steering in class SP-X and the Kroll family with the "old" BMW M3 CSL in the orphaned SP6 - in the current report, as well as the second place of Jasmin Priesig, Gustavo Xavier and Fred Yerly in the VW Golf TCR in class SP3T.

Martin Kroll's BMW M4 GT4 entered by Bonk Motorsport under Swiss entry missed the GT4 class win by just 25 seconds. In this seven-car SP10 class, all competitors crossed the finish line, including the Porsche Cayman driven by Ivan Jacoma, Mauro Calamia, Roberto Pampanini and German Kai Riemer in 4th position, and the Aston Martin Vantage driven by Alexander Walker from Valais.