How a split second decision cost Grello victory at Nüburgring 24h
- Benjamin Crundwell
- Jun 23
- 6 min read
Written by Benjamin Crundwell
18 hours led so far, six hours left to lead: the job was simple for Grello. However 18 hours, 20 minutes and 13 seconds into the race, the Porsche went for a risky gap on a back marker. Contact was made and the slower car was sent tumbling onto its roof, things had just got a lot more complicated for Grello.
It was clear the No.911 Manthey EMA Porsche (aka Grello) would be favourite to win the 53rd running of the Nürburgring 24h. The Porsche 911 GT3 R cars have won all five of the NLS (Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie) rounds this season and the Manthey crew are the most experienced of the Porsche GT3 privateer teams.
As a matter of fact, the No.911 Manthey car took one of the NLS wins itself, in the third round, the 56. Adenauer ADAC Rundstrecken-Trophy, with Ayhancan Güven and Thomas Preining behind the wheel.
In the one shot qualifying, Kévin Estre set the timing boards alight in the No.911 Manthey Porsche and took pole ahead of the No.45 Ferrari by a second. Preining started the race the next day in the Grello, retaining the lead. While a lot of teams had four drivers, Preining was one of only three to be driving for Manthey - Estre and Güven would be his teammates.
The lead was sacrificed briefly, when the No.45 Ferrari benefited from a shorter stop by pitting early, passing the first spot to the Italians. Soon after the red flag was brought out due to a power outage in the pit lane; the race would be restarted with the order on the penultimate green lap which put Grello back in first place.
In astonishing fashion, the Grello would then lead every single lap through the coming evening, night, morning and afternoon with the exception of one lap. They even led for the entirety of the final lap, which poses the question of how did they not win? To delve into what cost Grello the race, we need to zoom into the eighteenth hour.
In the early morning the gap between the leader (Grello) and the second place car (the No.98 Rowe BMW) was as big as 90 seconds. The Porsche tends to be better in lower temperatures, so as the heat came with the morning, it was no surprise the Porsche’s pace started to fall. Raffaele Marciello turned the BMW into a rocket ship, closing the gap rapidly until he was nose to tail with the leader.
By this point Estre was back in the Porsche, he had already taken a few risks with back markers and it was clear he would not be taking any prisoners. The BMW had been within a second of him for about a lap when Estre approached the No.179 Dörr Motorsport Aston Martin from the SP10 class.
Grello caught the No.187 at Spiegelkurve, the fast left-right chicane. Estre sat behind the back marker initially, but coming into the next corner - famously named miss-hit-miss (as it is a triple apex, where drivers miss the first apex, hit the second and miss the third) - Estre saw a gap and made a lunge.
Unfortunately, what had first appeared to be the No.179 leaving a gap for the Porsche, became the most controversial point of the race as the Aston Martin turned in to make the second apex, clearly unaware of the leader on its inside.
Estre tried mounting the kerb to avoid the No.179, but with no success. Contact was made and the No.179 was sent into a barrier, ending its race upside down. Avoiding the collision behind, the second place No.98 car had to go onto the grass, bouncing over the kerb.
The No.911 kept its lead ahead of the No.98, but meetings in the stewards room had now begun.
It took a while for the stewards to make a decision, as they waited until they could get Estre's view of the incident. As the cameraman followed Estre through his garage and into his hospitality, the tension could be felt through the TV screen from the Manthey employees.
Unfortunately the cameras had to leave after Olaf Manthey gave a finger wag to the cameraman, indicating they could not film in the hospitality.
Having spoken to Estre, the news broke that the No.911 would be given a 100 second penalty. While receiving the news, Grello also lost first place on the track for the first time since the red flag. The Porsche would only lose the lead for a lap as the BMW would pit on the next time round - by extending their stint by one lap the No.911 retook first place.
Through that pit stop, the Manthey crew should have served their penalty, however they chose not to as instead they were appealing it.
Fast forward to the final lap of the race, Grello still led and the situation with their penalty was unclear.
Coming down the Döttinger Höhe for the final time, it was announced Manthey’s appeal had been rejected. Grello crossed the line first, but the BMW was crucially 20 seconds behind. When the 100 second penalty was applied to the No.911, the No.98 inherited the victory.
It is important to not let this overshadow Rowe Racing and BMW’s success, as they did a spectacular job to come from 17th on the grid. The Manthey camp however will be aware that the race was theirs to win.
The Grello performance was nothing short of dominant. Going pole to flag by leading all but three laps can not be described as anything other than brilliant in a 24 hour race - especially on the Green Hell.
The split second decision by Estre to slide Grello down the inside of the No.179 was the only hiccup for the No.911 over the weekend. In most other sports, such a mistake would mean nothing, but in a motor race it put the back marker out the race and cost Grello the top step of the podium.
Many fans are asking: was the penalty fair? There are two similar scenarios where a GT3 car retired a back marker: The No.98 BMW and No.27 Lamborghini each hit a back marker, with contrasting penalties.
The first of these incidents was as the sun was setting on Saturday. The No.98 BMW drove into the back of one of the Cup 3 Porsches, putting it in the wall. Initially a 32 second penalty was applied but Rowe successfully appealed for it to be revoked, with the argument that their driver’s visibility was affected by the glare from the sun.
The second incident was in the morning, coming out of a slow zone. On the run down to Pflanzgarten, the No.27 tried to anticipate a gap on the inside, but the gap never opened and the Lamborghini sent the back marker into the barrier. The No.27 picked up a 100 second penalty, the same as the one the No.911 got. It was clear the Lamborghini was at fault in this incident.
Since all three incidents resulted in the back marker out of the race, if the stewards were penalising based on the outcome then all three cars should have received a penalty.
On the other hand, if they were penalising based on actions, the Lamborghini penalty was fair as the gap never existed, however the BMW and Porsche’s penalty can be debated to eternity.
Most pundits and fans seem to have the opinion that in the BMW’s case, no penalty is fair since the sun was obscuring its vision. In the Porsche’s case the common opinion is that he should also have not received a penalty as the door was opened and then closed by the back marker when the Porsche was already along side.
Unfortunately for Manthey, it is said in the regulations that the stewards look at the effect of the incident rather than the cause. By this reasoning the penalty against the No.911 was fair.
GT3 cars constantly go for smaller and riskier gaps throughout the race, but are never penalised unless it leads to contact. This has caused suggestions to be made that the regulations would benefit from being altered, to penalise cars based on the severity of their actions rather than the outcome.
Regardless of who deserved a penalty, both the No.911 Porsche and No.98 BMW drove exceptional races. At points both cars were up to 10 seconds a lap faster than their other competitors - impressively they both lapped every other car on the track.
Both cars thoroughly deserved to win, but this time it was the Rowe Racing BMW that was triumphant.
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