Falken loses two wins due to a yellow paint violation

(Motorsport-Total.com) – Second victory of the season for Falken Motorsport and third consecutive win for Porsche: The Falken Porsche #44 (Heinemann/S. Müller/Menzel/Ragginger) won Saturday’s 24-hour qualifying race However, only Sven Müller and Tim Heinemann drove on Saturday. They also won the third round of the Nürburgring Endurance Series (NLS) in 2024. (Results)

Falken Porsche had chosen the right strategy for the race and took the lead for as long as possible. As the race progressed, he fought his way up to Scherer Audi #16 (Stippler/Mies/Feller; 4), which had been leading for a long time.

However, he had completed his first stop early, which gave Falken a strategic advantage from the start. In the end, Scherer Sport Phx was also unlucky to lose an extra pole due to Rule 60, which meant that Manthey-EMA Porsche #911 (Güven/Preining; 2) “Grello” and Falken Porsche #33 (Andlauer/ Bachler /S. Müller/Picariello 5.) pass.

“This is the first win (Nordschleife) for me in GT3. So a very special feeling and then two wins for Falken. So yeah, a good debut. Now we just have to get into the big 24-hour race.” , Heinemann commented quite modestly on his first SP9 win.

The Scherer Audis, which started from the front row, dominated the early stages of the race and produced an exciting performance. Scherer Audi #15 (Vervisch/Haase/Marschall; 5th) briefly took the lead, but gradually fell back after the first pit stop.

The #16 stopped after just six laps at the same time as the #33 Falken-Porsche, who fought a thrilling battle in the second round. The #44, which had completed its first stop after seven laps, entered the action at the second stop.

The eventual winner beat the Scherer-Audi #15 and its sister car #33 and quickly closed the gap on the leading Scherer-Audi #16. Frank Stippler stopped all the attacks of Sven Müller, but Falken did not have to pass him. At the final stop, the #44 automatically took the lead due to the short time remaining, followed by “Grello” and the #33.

© ADAC North Rhine/Group C

Falken Porsche #33 lost second place again Grow

Illegal excessive maneuver on the last lap

In fact, things seemed to be over. But in the last second, Klaus Bachler scored on Ayhancan Güven to make the Falcons’ two wins good for the time being. It would be the first double win for Sven Schnabl’s team after losing one in the NLS last year due to relegation.

But this time too, Schnabl Engineering is not allowed to keep one-two wins, as the maneuver to pass Bachler was done under the yellow flag. That’s why there is a subsequent penalty of 32 seconds for the driving penalty, which puts the Porsche back in fifth place.

Bachler describes the extreme trick from his perspective: “There was Rule 60 at the end of mine. And it was reserved for me, of all people. So I moved to ‘Grello’. And then I thought: ‘Okay. , maybe I have a chance. ‘ It was my turn and I came.”

Scherer Sport Phx took advantage of the time and finally made it to the podium with #16. Only fourth and fifth place remained behind the Porsche trio on the track. Dennis Marschall (#15) moans: “The Porsche looks too fast. We still have to improve our car a bit.”

AMG and BMW are reluctant

Frikadelli-Ferrari #1 (Fernandez Laser/Keilwitz) did not go above sixth place in its first race of the year. “We have to collect all the data as soon as possible to get the best configuration. We haven’t got it yet,” said team owner Klaus Abbelen during the race. The Ferrari 296 GT3 is still warming up on the new Michelin tires.

However, Frikadelli Racing was ahead of cars from Mercedes-AMG and BMW. GetSpeed-Mercedes #130 (Engel/Christodoulou/Gounon) was the best Mercedes in seventh, closely followed by Abt-Lamborghini #27 (K. van der Linde/Mapelli/Pepper; 8th) and GetSpeed-Mercedes #9 . (Ellis/Greinier/Schiller; 9.).

The best BMW M4 GT3 followed in tenth place, RMG-BMW #72 (Harper/Hesse/Weerts), 2:42 minutes behind. Rowe Racing, on the other hand, held back conspicuously. To make matters worse, Rowe BMW #98 (Marciello/Martin/Wittmann; DNF) collided with a BMW 330i in the Wippermann area.

“It’s not the best situation. The car spun around in front of me. I braked, but it came back. That’s part of the situation on the Nordschleife – you need a bit of luck. An unfortunate situation, but it happened. We can be in tomorrow’s race still learning,” reports Maxime Martin and announced that the car will be rebuilt by Sunday morning.

Another Rowe BMW and #99 (D. Vanthoor/S. van der Linde/Farfus) finished twelfth behind Herberth Porsche #5 (Renauer/V. Kolb/Olsen; 11th) on his Nordschleife debut.

Glickenhaus and Aston Martin go way back

While the Italo foreign players entered the top 10, Walkenhorst Motorsport struggled in its first Aston Martin race on the Nordschleife. So the best Vantage AMR GT3 Evo was Prosport Aston Martin #17 (Bastian/Böckmann/Buurman) in P17. The Walkenhorst-Aston-Martin #35 (Hull/Mazatis/Assenheimer; 32nd) dropped back early due to a puncture.

Walkenhorst-Aston-Martin #34 (Krognes/Giermaziak/Pittard/Thiim) did not reach the finish line. Nicki Thiim: “Kuba (Giermaziak) met a barrier and damaged his front end. For us, the race is a test. That’s why it doesn’t make sense to continue.”

Glickenhaus-SCG #706 (Mutsch/Mailleux/Arnold/Ledogar; 18th) qualified fourth on the grid. During the race, however, it quickly became apparent that the pace was not there. The light blue car dropped out of the top 10 in the first round.

Thomas Mutsch concludes: “Our qualifying time was very good. But when you looked at the time carefully, it is clear that we could not keep up with GT3. This is now also evident in the race. We are behind. in development – that’s why “We are satisfied. We still have potential that we can use before the 24-hour race. The only question is whether the others will show everything.”

Otherwise, the race was marked by a fatal crash involving the Adrenalin M240i #651 (Marino/Himmels/Silva), which required more than an hour of repairs to the guardrail in the Wehrseifen area. Same driver.

After initial e-gas problems, Dacia Logan saw the checkered flag in 115th place with 18 laps to go and recorded its first ever finish, albeit with 11:17 minutes as the fastest lap.

The Volkswagen Beetle RSR from White Angel for Fly and Help completed two laps down. The car pitted several times in its first race, but performed well for its debut.

On Sunday there will be a second qualifying session starting at 8:15 am, followed by the first qualifying session. The tournament starts at 1pm and lasts for four hours.