72 Hours of June 2025: The review
- Aaron Carroll
- Jul 8
- 7 min read
Written by Aaron Carroll, Edited by Vyas Ponnuri
Seven drivers were brave enough to take on the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the 24 Hours of the Nürburgring and the 24 Hours of Spa in three weekends back-to-back. How did each of them fare?
Maxime Martin, Luca Stolz, Augusto Farfus, Raffaele Marciello, Kelvin Van Der Linde, Mattia Drudi and Loek Hartog all fought for the honours in all three races. In this article, we will rank them based on their individual results across the three weekends.
Disclaimer: Any rankings in this piece do not affect the achievement of competing in all three events. Each of the seven drivers showed the utmost level of endurance and commitment over the three weekends, and all deserve massive credit, no matter their final results.
7. Luca Stolz
Filling in the bottom spot on the list, is German racer Luca Stolz. He began his 72 Hours of June campaign alongside father-son duo Stephen and Brenton Grove, in the No.63 Iron Lynx Mercedes LMGT3 at Le Mans, and they couldn’t have had a worse build-up.
A monumental crash for Stephen Grove in Free Practice 1 (FP1) on Wednesday caused major setbacks for their preparations. The team had to almost completely rebuild the car from the ground up, meaning they missed qualifying. They missed FP2 as well, with a mechanical issue. However, the trio did manage to finish the race, albeit in 15th, seven laps off the eventual winners.
The Nürburgring started better, in the No.14 alongside Maro Engel, Maxime Martin and Fabian Schiller. With a star-studded lineup, they were one of the favourites heading into the weekend. They were in the fight for the podium for the majority of their race, but a driveshaft issue halted their efforts.
It was much the same story in Spa too. Stolz, along with Schiller and Jules Gounon, were in the mix for the first half of the race. But then they collided with the No.99 Audi, causing irreversible damage. Stolz suffered his second DNF in three races.
With a sole finish in Le Mans of 15th, Stolz unfortunately didn’t have a very high ceiling for these rankings. He does leave us with the question, however: What could have been?
6. Maxime Martin
Just ahead of Stolz is his Mercedes teammate, Maxime Martin. The Belgian would get his campaign underway in one of the sister Iron Lynx Mercedes at Le Mans, in the No.61 alongside Lin Hoednius and Martin Berry. The trio qualified an impressive fourth, setting them up perfectly for the race.
They held a decent pace for the entire race, but yellow flag penalties, and small mechanical issues ultimately unravelled their race. They finished in P12, four laps off the lead.
Martin was teammate to Stolz for the Nürburgring 24h in the No.14 Mercedes, a driveshaft issue ending their race.
At Spa, Martin was a part of the No.9 Boutsen VDS Pro effort with Mikael Grenier and Maximillian Götz. They put the Mercedes AMG GT3 third on the grid and were in the hunt early on. Unfortunately, debris from a separate collision got into the radiator and caused a leak that took them out of the race.
Similar to Stolz, Martin did not finish in either the Nürburgring or Spa. The slightly better finish at Le Mans takes him just ahead of his stablemate, in sixth on our list.
5. Mattia Drudi
The sole Aston Martin driver on the list — Mattia Drudi — opens up the top five in our rankings. He started his month at the wheel of the No.27 Heart of Racing LMGT3 alongside Ian James and Zacharie Robichon. Drudi put the car on pole position for the race, the only LMGT3 driver in the 3:52s in Hyperpole 2.
They had good pace all race to go with it, but in the end, a slow zone penalty took them off the podium positions. They finished in fourth place, two minutes behind the winners.
Drudi’s team qualified well at the Nürburgring too, Christian Krognes, Nicki Thiim, David Pittard and Drudi lining up third on the grid. Once again they were in contention, but a power loss took them out of the race.
A drivetrain issue would cause Drudi and the No.007 crew to retire from the next race in Spa too. Disaster for the Italian, Thiim and Marco Sørensen, who were favourites to win the race, coming off the back of their 2024 victory.
As was the case with both Mercedes drivers preceding Drudi in the rankings, two DNFs in the Nürburgring and Spa limited the success of Drudi. The fourth-place finish in Le Mans, and his pole lap put him ahead of Stolz and Martin, into fifth in the rankings.
It is also worth mentioning, that on the weekend after Spa, Drudi took part in the 25 Hours of Spa fun cup. The Italian added the extra hours on top of his already packed schedule, the ultimate showing of endurance and grit.
4. Loek Hartog
As the only non-platinum-graded driver on the list, Hartog stands out as somewhat of an underdog, when compared to the other drivers. Nonetheless, the Dutchman’s pace shone this month, with some respectable results.
At Le Mans, he drove the No.90 Manthey Porsche alongside Antares Au and Klaus Bachler. Both Hartog and Au made their Le Mans debut and delivered well. The crew started the race down in 19th place but put in a solid performance during the race to climb up to P6, where they finished.
Hartog, Bastian Buus, Matteo Cairoli and Joel Sturm may not have been favourites heading into the Nürburgring 24h weekend, but they delivered a good performance. They started down in 19th, but once again Hartog and his team slowly pulled the car through the order. The Dinamic GT squad finished in third place in the end, a very good result for the team.
In the final race of the three at the Spa, Hartog joined the Rutronik Racing Bronze lineup, alongside Au, Martin Rump and Morris Schuring. The trio had a respectable showing, finishing 45th overall, and 13th in class.
Hartog’s podium in Germany and the consistent finishes across the board make him stand out among a group of professionals, but there was one thing that set the top three apart…
3. Kelvin van der Linde
On the bottom step of the podium, is Kelvin Van Der Linde. The South African joined up with MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi and Ahmad Al-Harthy for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, in the No.46 BMW WRT. Van Der Linde put the car third in qualifying, setting them up for a good race.
They were having a good race too, until during the night disaster struck. The car was forced into the garage due to an electrical issue, ruining their chances of a good result. The trio still pushed on, but could only manage a 21st-place finish, 185 laps off the lead in LMGT3.
It was the N24 where van der Linde shone. Alongside Augusto Farfus, Raffaele Marciello and Jesse Khron, the No.98 ROWE BMW crew took home the win from 17th on the grid. They worked their way up to second, where they battled with the No.911 Porsche, but after a penalty for the Porsche, they won.
Ugo de Wilde and Charles Weerts were chosen to race alongside van der Linde for the final leg, with the trio qualifying in 16th place. An overall clean race for the trio meant they slowly climbed up the order, but a general lack of pace for all WRT cars limited them to seventh place.
Van der Linde, Farfus and Marciello all sit in the top three in the rankings, with it being very hard to separate the three after their N24 victory. But the South African just slipped behind the other two, into third.
2. Raffaele Marciello
Marciello got his campaign underway at Le Mans, the only driver on this list in the Hypercar category. He, Dries Vanthoor and Kevin Magnussen took to the wheel of the No.15 BMW WRT Hypercar. They qualified well in fourth and stayed in the front group for a large portion of the race.
Ultimately, the car was hit with a hybrid cooling issue. This meant they dropped out of contention and down the Hypercar order. They ended up 18th in class, 26 laps off the lead.
Marciello won the N24, alongside Van Der Linde, and even drove the final stint.
In the final race at Spa, the Italian raced alongside Farfus and Khron in the No.98 ROWE BMW, the same car he and Farfus won in the weekend before. They started 14th, before moving up the order. They were in the fight for third at the end of the race, but a late track limits penalty demoted them to fifth.
1. Augusto Farfus
Augusto Farfus took home first in our rankings last year, and he’s gone back-to-back in 2025.
He drove the No.31 BMW WRT at Le Mans, the sister car to van der Linde’s No.46. Farfus, Timur Boguslavskiy and Yasser Shahin qualified 16th, and worked their way up the field before the halfway point. During the night stages, they had a strange incident when the car hit a stray rabbit.
The unfortunate animal damaged the car extensively, leading to an extended period in the garage for the No.31. They eventually finished one place ahead of the No.46, in 20th, 173 laps behind the leaders.
Farfus raced with Van Der Linde and Marciello at the Nürburgring, proving to be a vital part of their victory. He also raced in the same car as the Italian at Spa, the No.98 BMW. They finished fifth after the penalty demoted them from third.
Not much split van der Linde, Marciello and Farfus in the end. All three had similarly disappointing Le Mans results, and then the win at the Nürburgring. Ultimately, it was a two-place lower finish in Spa that demoted van der Linde to third.
With Farfus and Marciello in the same car, it was tough to pick a definitive winner. But with the burden of the penalty falling on the Italian, Farfus had an advantage over his teammate.
No matter these results however, all seven of the drivers will return to their respective campaigns for the rest of the season, with some hoping for better form, and the others looking to hold their momentum.
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