As always on the Nordschleife it was not possible to remain certain of the final result until the checkered flag was displayed.
After several editions battered by the rain, this time the weather was mild, allowing the protagonists to battle without interruptions, but with twists during the race that shuffled the cards a lot.
# 1 Manthey-Racing GmbH Porsche 911 GT3 R: Michael Christensen, Kevin Estre, Frédéric Makowiecki, Laurens Vanthoor
Photo by: Andreas Beil
6th Hour: the Vanthoor brothers in contact, Porsche out
Manthey Racing was unable to defend the 2021 victory due to the accident involving Laurens Vanthoor, crashing into the Porsche # 1 after a collision with his brother Dries.
The 911 the Belgian shared with Kevin Estre, Fred Makowiecki and Michael Christensen had started from the back of the GT3 grid for an infraction during practice, but Vanthoor fought back to third place, where he found the Audi of the Phoenix driven by his brother. lesser Dries.
The two dueled on the long ‘Dottinger Hohe’ straight and continued side by side near the Tiergarten, with Audi slightly ahead, where a slight contact between the Porsche’s right front and Audi’s left rear made losing control at 911, ended up in a spin.
Laurens managed to avoid the left wall, but had a hard impact against the right one as the track curves left before the ‘Hohenrain’ chicane.
The accident knocked out the Porsche, with the driver finished as a precaution at the medical center. The marshals who were stationed behind the barriers hit by Vanthoor were also unharmed.
“We were side by side, but there was no more space. We touched only slightly. But the impact with my car was probably at the most unfortunate point – explains L. Vanthoor – I spun at high speed and this that’s what. I’m fine. A great misfortune for the whole team. “
D. Vanthoor commented: “We have to review what happened. We were side by side, me on the left and him on the right, so it’s no one’s fault. It’s a real shame he’s out for such a thing. It happens, but it’s bad when the other is your brother “.
When questioned about the accident, Porsche Motorsport manager Thomas Laudenbach said he didn’t want to blame either driver: “It wouldn’t be fair to judge now. They touched each other several times, we just missed it. We have to analyze it calmly. Honestly. , the most important thing is that Laurens is okay. It was a big bang. “
The car had briefly led in the early stages in the hands of Kevin Estre, after a spin by Nicki Thiim (TF Sport – Aston Martin).
Other GT3 cars ended up behind: Octane126’s Ferrari that sprinted from pole position was held back by a puncture while Simon Trummer was behind the wheel and Team RMG’s BMW M4 # 72 wasted time in the pits after Daniel Harper collided with the BMW # 331 of Adrenalin in the ‘Hohenrain’ chicane.
The Porsche # 27 of Toksport-WRT also retired after a collision at the NGK chicane between Julien Andlauer and the BMW # 99 of Nick Yelloly (Rowe Racing) who started second. Both cars were heavily damaged and Yelloly earned a penalty.
Andlauer told Motorsport.com: “It was a pretty serious accident and it was over for us. I can’t help but feel sorry for the guys, I couldn’t avoid the contact that came from behind.”
Rowe team boss Hans-Peter Naundorf said: “We have watched the videos several times and I don’t understand how our car could be penalized. The track was quite wide.”
# 160 Teichmann Racing KTM X-BOW GTX: Georg Griesemann, Maik Rönnefarth, Yves Volte, Felix von der Laden
Photo by: Alexander Trienitz
12th Hour: KTM on fire, disasters for BMW and Aston
Within minutes of the night, two of the main favorites left the race.
About seven hours had passed when the Aston Martin # 90 of Sörensen / Thiim / Pittard / Martin (TF Sport), which had long been in the lead, lost positions. As it turned out, Thiim had been involved in an accident earlier.
Soon after, another big favorite, Rowe Racing’s BMW # 98 (Catsburg / Edwards / S.Van der Linde / Wittmann) suddenly got stuck on the track. Van Der Linde crashed into the barriers in the Bergwerk section. From the onboard registrations, no other vehicles appeared to be involved.
“From how you can see in the replay, it looks like something broke – said Wittmann in the livestream – What can I say? It’s disappointing. We were doing well all the time, we were in the leading group. Now going out like this is annoying.”
Maximilian Hackländer in Konrad Motorsport’s Lamborghini # 7 (Jefferies / Pepper / di Martino / Hackländer) also hit the barrier, but managed to trudge to the pit lane, where a tie rod was replaced.
Previously, Felix von der Laden in the KTM # 160 of Teichmann (Griesemann / Rönnefarth / Volte / von der Laden) gave chills: Von der Laden parked the car in the Aremberg area on the track with the car on fire, but this just kept going!
“As I approached Schwedenkreuz, I ran out of power, the fuel pressure dropped and that’s when I saw the flames in the rear camera – he said – I tried to stop as quickly as possible”.
“At Aremberg, I activated the on-board fire extinguisher and stayed in the cockpit for as long as possible because I wanted to brake. When it didn’t work and there was more and more smoke in the cockpit, I had to get out.”
“Unable to stay in the car any longer, it continued its run downhill, then crossed the track hitting the barrier on the opposite side.”
“The car has no handbrake, it was not possible to stop it. It’s a shame, I was setting the best lap times of my life, the car was perfectly tuned by the team.”
# 3 Mercedes-AMG Team GetSpeed Mercedes-AMG GT3: Adam Christodoulou, Maximilian Götz, Fabian Schiller
15th Hour: Audi and Mercedes vying for the record
Audi and Mercedes fought for primacy in the second half of the race, with the first light of dawn lighting up the track.
The Phoenix Racing R8 # 15 shared by Kelvin van der Linde, Dries Vanthoor, Frederic Vervisch and Robin Frijns took a good lead on the GetSpeed AMG GT3s.
This thanks to an excellent stint by Frijns led him to +30 “in the Mercedes # 3 in the hands of Adam Christodoulou, Maximilian Gotz and Fabian Schiller, followed by the # 4 of Maro Engel, Jules Gounon and Dani Juncadella.
Audi’s # 5 from Phoenix (Van der Linde / Kolb / Stippler / Feller), on the other hand, crashed into a dubbed car.
The others in the fight for success are Schubert’s BMW # 20 (Jesse Krohn, Alexander Sims, Jens Klingmann, Niklas Krutten) which has a different strategy from the others, after having served 32 “penalties for speeding under yellow flags.
The Porsches at that time seemed already cut off from the record, with the 911 GT3 R of Christian Engelhart, Matteo Cairoli, Come Ledogar and Thomas Preining (Dinamic Motorsport) forced to the pits for repairs after a contact and then retired.
The best of the Porsches was therefore the # 33 of Falken driven by Jaxon Evans, Sven Muller, Patrick Pilet and Marco Seefried, ninth after a tire change due to a puncture.
Also out are the BMW # 101 of Walkenhorst (accident) and # 72 of RMG (Max Hesse on the wall at the Klostertal).
The Ferrari of the Octane126 raised the white flag due to the failure of a tie rod.
The Konrad Lamborghini # 7 was back in the Top 10 after an accident and the consequent pit stop for repairs, but one lap behind the leaders.
Glickenhaus SCG004C # 706 accumulated two laps late, also in the pits for unscheduled repairs.
# 4 Mercedes-AMG Team GetSpeed Mercedes-AMG GT3: Maro Engel, Jules Gounon, Daniel Juncadella
Photo by: Alexander Trienitz
21st Hour: the weather begins to reshuffle the cards
The last hours of the race saw the weather protagonist, with some possible strategies on differentiated tires for the teams.
The Audi # 15 of Phoenix at that time was even earlier with Vanthoor and with the advantage of having also already stopped compared to the Mercedes # 3 of GetSpeed, therefore being able to manage the 23 “margin well.
In that while, some parts of the track began to get wet due to the rain and with the first two on slick and the Mercedes # 4 third to lose contact with them, now pursued by the BMW # 20 of Schubert and the Audi # 22 of Car-Collection (Haase / N. Müller / Niederhauser / Rast).
The latter, however, was penalized on Sunday morning with 32 “to be served for not respecting the indications of the yellow flags, while the BMW # 20 was surprised by a shower of rain and touched the wall.
The Porsches were cut out of the tussle for the success, with the best being the # 18 of KCMG (Olsen / Tandy / Bamber) tenth one lap behind, while the Lamborghini # 7 of Konrad fell 12th, followed in 15th position by the Glickenhaus # 706 (Mutsch / Laser / Mailleux / Westbrook).
Podium: Race winner # 15 Audi Sport Team Phoenix Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo 2: Kelvin van der Linde, Dries Vanthoor, Frédéric Vervisch, Robin Frijns, second place # 3 Mercedes-AMG Team GetSpeed Mercedes-AMG GT3: Adam Christodoulou, Maximilian Götz, Fabian Schiller, third place # 4 Mercedes-AMG Team GetSpeed Mercedes-AMG GT3: Maro Engel, Jules Gounon, Daniel Juncadella
Photo by: Alexander Trienitz
Final: Phoenix Racing gives Audi the triumph
Kelvin van der Linde took home victory for Meuspath’s team after 159 laps, equaling the race distance record.
After surviving the night, Phoenix’s Audi still had two opponents to defeat: GetSpeed’s two Mercedes-AMG GT3s, # 3 and # 4.
AMG # 3 proved to be Phoenix’s toughest opponent on Sunday morning. Christodoulou and Schiller called everything into question three hours from the end, but with the strategic disadvantage of making the pit stop one lap before Phoenix, which therefore was able to choose better which tires to fit, since at that moment it had started to rain. in some points.
This allowed Van der Linde to accumulate an advantage that increased to more than a minute, while Gotz was unable to gain with slicks in those situations.
GetSpeed’s second Mercedes secured last place on the podium.
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