Porsche shine again in Nürburgring 24h Qualifiers

Benjamin Crundwell
7 hours ago
4 min read

Written by Benjamin Crundwell, Edited by Aaron Carroll

The race winning No.16 Scherer Sport PHX Porsche | Credit: Luna Maas

In traditional Nürburgring fashion, drivers were challenged with extreme conditions, as the rain poured onto the 25.378 km (15.770 mile) race track. A brilliant opening stint by Laurens Vanthoor gave his No.16 Porsche a huge lead, which it would not sacrifice before the chequered flag fell, continuing Porsche's domination of the Nürburgring this season.

A brilliant lap by Kevin Estre put the No.911 on pole in the famous "Grello" Porsche. The No.1 Audi and No.45 Ferrari followed in second and third, respectively, unable to compete with Estre's rapid pace.

The No.911 "Grello" Porsche lead from pole on a soaking Green Hell, as cars fought to stay on the track behind it. The No.33 Falken Motorsports Porsche jumped into second place at the hands of Julien Andlauer, ahead of the No.8 Audi of Franck Stippler, who started in eighth place.

Arriving on the GP track for the second time, Stippler had got ahead of Andlauer, but lost the place after a trip through the gravel trap in the Schumacher Esses. Stippler was not the first to go off, as the other Falken Motorsports car, the No.44, went off at Hatzenbach during their first lap on the Nordschleife. Both cars returned to the track, without losing drastic time.

Coming down the Döttinger-Höhe, the top four went for a four way battle, the No.911 dropped down to fourth, as the No.33 took the lead. It was a short-kept lead, as Andlauer was caught out on the wet surface and slid into the barrier - letting Vanthoor take the lead in the No.16 Scherer Sport Porsche.

While Estre reclaimed second place, the No.33 managed to reverse out, but he had front bumper damage and dropped to the last position in the SP9 (GT3) class. The No.16 wasn't hanging about, as Vanthoor stretched his lead out to double digits over Stippler, who once again exchanged places with the No.911.

As the No.911 was dropping pace, Manthey opted to pit early for a tyre change and refuel at the end of lap four. Many of the cars in slower classes had incidents, bringing out yellows but all of the SP9 (GT3) cars kept their machinery on the island, despite the treacherous conditions.

After the first round of pit stops, the top two remained the same, the No.16 Porsche now over half a minute ahead of the No.8 Audi, who had had a driver change, as Stippler jumped out for Elia Erhart. Maxime Martin was third in the No.14 Team GetSpeed Mercedes, as Estre once again pit early in the No.911, dropping him down to fifth, behind the No.54 Dinamic Porsche.

Showing immense speed, Laurens Vanthoor didn't take long to grow his lead to above a minute, while Estre went even faster in fourth place, although two minutes behind the lead.

Every race car's strategy became offset to each other as each of them opted to pit at different times. This exposed the teams to fierce strategy battles, even though there was less action amongst the leaders on the track itself.

At the half way mark, the fan favourite No.150 "YouTube car" was second place in the SP8T class, at the hands of Jimmy Broadbent, two and a half minutes behind first place, where they started. The car was affected by having four drivers in a race which only needed two pitstops, meaning the Bilstein squad had to make an extra pitstop for it's last driver change, compared to it's competitors.

The No.911 "Grello" Manthey EMA Porsche 911 GT3 R | Credit: Luna Maas

With an hour and a half remaining, Kevin Estre overtook the No.14 Mercedes for the on-track lead, after which the No.14 understeered onto the grass in Hatzenbach, taking away his opportunity to reclaim the position. The No.16 Porsche, in the hands of Patric Niederhauser, was 54 seconds behind the pair, having taken an earlier pitstop.

In the TCR class, the No.830 Hyundai was on blistering pace at the hands of Christer Jöns. The Hyundai was in 10th place overall, lapping a minute a lap faster than the others in it's class.

With an hour and a quarter remaining, the No.911 pulled into the pits for the last time, as Estre jumped out for his teammate Patrick Pilet. This allowed the No.16 to re-inherit the lead Vanthoor had earlier fought so hard to earn earlier in the race. The No.911 returned to the track in second place, two minutes behind the No.16.

When everyone had completed their second stop (and final stop for the majority of cars), the No.16 lead from the No.911, Fabian Schiller was third in the No.14 Mercedes. The No.54 Dinamic Porsche followed by Bastian Buus followed in fourth, ahead of the Jongkyum Kim's No.55 Hankook Porsche in fifth.

The No.16 Porsche was one of the few who still needed to pit, since it was offset from the main strategy. With only a few laps remaining, they came in from the pits with a three minute lead, and left 90 seconds ahead of their nearest challengers.

Setting the fastest lap on the last lap, Niederhauser bought the No.16 Porsche home in first place, with a lead of two and a half minutes. The pole sitting No.911 "Grello" car finished second, another two minutes ahead of third place car: the No.14 Mercedes.

The No.54, No.44 and No.55 Porsches finished fourth, fifth and sixth respectively, meaning there were five Porsches in the top six, continuing the Stuttgard Marque's domination on the Nürburgring in 2025. They have now won the all four NLS (Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie) races this season.

The seventh place car (and first non SP9 car) was the No.921 Cup 2 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car, ahead of the No.8 Audi which was competing for the lead in the opening stint. The No.830 Hyundai won the TCR class, and finished eighth overall.

Final Results - Top 10