'Grello' leads the Nürburgring 24h at halfway mark
- DIVEBOMB Endurance Team
- 10 hours ago
- 5 min read
Written by Aaron Carroll and Benjamin Crundwell
The No.911 Manthey EMA Porsche has led much of the race so far, leading at the halfway mark. They are followed by the No.98 ROWE BMW and the No.34 Walkenhorst Aston Martin.
The 2025 Nürburgring 24h got underway at 16:00 local time today deep in the heart of the Eifel region in Germany. The No.911 Manthey EMA Porsche of Thomas Preining led the field away at the green flag.
Before we even got to the start, the No.65 Ford Mustang pulled into the pits at the end of the formation lap with a suspected issue.
Preining got away well, holding the lead as they headed onto the Nordschlife for the first time. Behind, Maro Engel in the No.14 Mercedes got past the No.45 Ferrari of David Perel.
As they went down to the high speed Foxhole section, the second starting group saw the green light back on the Grand Prix circuit, the No.948 Porsche Cup 2 car leading the way. The fan favourite No.150 'YouTube car' led their class - SP8 T - with Steve Brown at the wheel.
Then it was the turn of start group three, with some contact down the order into turn one, but mainly getting away cleanly.
The No.347 SP-PRO spun off and hit the barrier in the first section of the Nordschlife, before the driver pulled in at the side of the track two corners later, bringing out the first yellow flags of the race.
Yellow flags in this race meant there was a 120 km/h speed limit through that section of the track. If the race director felt the need for further intervention a Code 60 could be put out, limiting cars to 60 km/h.
They did exactly that to remove the car. We also got our first taste of the interesting quirks of this race, with a recovery vehicle on the track along with the race cars. The No.347 was put on the back of a flatbed and put behind the barriers.
Then the leaders encountered a Code 60 on the Döttinger straight, and the lead gap was almost obliterated. Preinings lead back to three seconds. The four stayed in the same order for the next 15 minutes or so, before it was time for the first pit stops.
The Ferrari came in, along with the No.17 Mercedes, No.34 Aston Martin, No.1 Audi, No.98 BMW and more at the end of lap five.
The No.911 peeled into the pits just before the end of the first hour, along with the No.33 and No.48 Porsches. Preining jumped out of Grello for the ominous Kevin Estre to take over.
Due to a longer mandatory pitstop for the No.911 (as they did a longer stint), the No.45 took the lead having pit earlier. the No.911 exited the pits in eighth place, 27 seconds off the lead.
While the leader was pitting, the No.11 Pro-Am car got beached on the gravel on the GP track as it's wheel was not bolted on correctly.
There was also drama on the Nordschleife, as the No.34, No.1 and No.14 car were nose to tail through a code 60. As the green flag waved the No.1 Audi drove into the back of the No.34 Aston Martin, causing him to lose a position to the No.14 Mercedes. All three cars survived the encounter, despite light body work damage.
The No.1 attacked the Mercedes down the Döttinger Höhe, as the two participated in a drag race down to Hohenrain-Schikane. The Audi lifted at the first kink, letting the Mercedes keep fourth position.
All this action was suddenly stopped 90 minutes into the race when a red flag came out due to a power outage in the pit lane.
At 20:45 the the race restarted, almost five hours into the race. The grid was set by the result from the last green flag lap, so the No.911 Grello car led the field back to action.
For a long while, it was a Porsche 1-2, from the No.14 Mercedes of Maro Engel.
Not long after the restart, last years winners, the No.1 Scherer Sport Audi, had a spin leaving the pit lane. This was the first of it's problems, as it would later hit the barrier and be forced to retire.
Other German cars were also getting involved in incidents. The No.98 BMW worked it's way onto the podium, however picked up a 32 second penalty for causing a collision. Meanwhile, the No.8 Audi had a spin trying to lap traffic.
Right from the restart, the No.33 Falken Motorsports Porsche was in second place, their fortune turned however when the No.94 Cup 2 car spun on the exit of turn two. Unsighted, the No.33 came round the corner and smashed it's front end on the Cup 2 car.
Andlauer bought the car back to the pits, but the damage was too substantial to return to the track. That was day done for half of the Falken crew.
With it's two main competitors in strife, the No.911 Porsche led, with Ayhacan Güven at the wheel. He had a close call with the Mini, but the Turkish driver just about came out unscathed.
As night fell across the circuit, the No.1 Audi found the wall on the Nordschliefe, with Luca Ludwig forced to limp back to the pits. With the sister No.16 Porsche withdrawn for a collision in qualifying, it wasn't looking good for the reigning N24 champions.
Just after the eight hour mark, the two GetSpeed Mercedes got into a fight for third. The No.14 managed to fend off the sister No.17 on the Döttinger.
The No.14 wouldn't hold on for long though, as just about an hour later they ended up in the pits with an issue. As Fabian Schiller tried to pull away from a stop, the car wouldn't move. A suspected driveshaft issue ended their race.
Meanwhile the sister car got into another fight, this time up against the No.65 Ford Mustang. Grenier in the Mercedes took advantage of Owega being slowed by a lapped car and went down the inside on the GP loop, earning fourth place.
After the earlier hit for the No.33 Falken Porsche, the sister No.44 came limping into the pits with a rear right puncture. The mechanics worked frantically on that corner of the car, and got it back out albeit with time lost.
As the race enters the second half of running, the No.911 is in control with a lead of over two minutes to the No.98 and No.34 Aston Martin behind.
Keep up to date on the last 12 hours with our LIVE coverage here.
All pictures in this article were taken by @itslunamaas on Instragram.
