Manthey 'very disappointed' after early retirement from Nürburgring 24 Hours
- Owen Bradley
- 1 hour ago
- 3 min read
Following a huge upset at the Nürburgring 24 Hours, which saw the No.911 Manthey Porsche squad retire from the race just four hours in, the team behind the 'Grello' car have expressed their frustration and disappointment at the early retirement.
Manthey Racing were forced to retire from the Nürburgring 24 Hours after just four hours, following an incident which saw Kevin Estre run over oil on the track at Brünnchen, subsequently losing control of the No.911 Porsche and smashing into the barrier, causing terminal damage to the area surrounding the engine.
After starting from eighth place on the grid, the squad quickly fought their way through the field, with Estre at the wheel. The Frenchman put the Green and Yellow 'Grello' car towards the front of the field, battling the No.7 Konrad Lamborghini for first place. After the first hour of the race, the fight at the front was exceptionally tight.
After two hours, the No.911 Manthey Porsche squad led the way, with Thomas Preining at the whee. Eventually, through pit stop strategies and Code 60 slow zones, the No.3 Verstappen Racing Mercedes, with Jules Gounon at the wheel, would snatch the lead from the Porsche, which was then being driven by Estre once again.
Estre managed to take multiple seconds out of Gounon, closing the gap from 25 seconds to around six seconds, before the Frenchman eventually ran over the oil, spinning out of control and hitting the barrier hard. Manthey's No.911 Porsche did get towed back to the pit lane, but 'Grello' would not see any more running at the Nürburgring.
Following the huge disappointment, Kevin Estre stated: "Unfortunately, our race ended very early. I was in my second stint, on the second lap, in Brünnchen. I had just overtaken another car when I suddenly lost the rear due to oil on the track. There were no flags and no car ahead to warn me."
The Frenchman added: "This is a tough situation to accept. But that’s motorsport, and especially at the Nürburgring, anything can happen."
The No.911 Manthey Porsche squad's last victory at the Nurburgring came in 2021, and the trio consisting of Estre, Güven and Preining have finished in second place for the last two years in a row.
Thomas Preining said: "The retirement is obviously extremely bitter. We had everything in place to fight for another podium or even the win, which makes it all the more disappointing that the race ended in this way. For me, this was my fourth consecutive year in the ‘Grello’. For four years in a row, everything has worked perfectly on the team side, yet the big result has so far eluded us."
Adding to his team-mate's thoughts, Güven stated: "After finishing second in the last two years, it is obviously disappointing not to make it to the finish this time. Conditions were challenging throughout - frequent light rain and oil on certain sections of the track. On the Nordschleife, especially with such a large field, these kinds of unpredictable situations unfortunately happen."
With the No.911 Manthey Porsche's pure pace, the car certainly had the potential to take the overall race win. Numerous cars and teams later throughout the race were caught out by multiple incidents, and some other suffered misfortune, like Max Verstappen's No.3 Mercedes, which after leading 20 hours into the race, would be forced into the garage to retire.
Patrick Arkenau, racing director at Manthey, also weighed in on the early retirement, stating: "We are, of course, very disappointed that our race with the No.911 ended so early. Unfortunately, the damage was too severe and we had to shut the engine down immediately. Repairing the car was no longer an option. We would have loved to put on a strong show for longer. Our goal is clear: to come back even stronger next year."
Despite the disappointing result, the No.911 Porsche squad were exceptionally fast throughout the entire weekend, which was best showcased at the start of the race where they went from eighth on the grid, to eventually leading the race after a couple of hours. If the team had a little more luck, they could very well have challenged the No.80 Winward Mercedes that went on to win the race.
