Schubert Motorsport lead at the midpoint of NLS 3

Credit: Luna Maas

Marco Wittmann is leading the third round of the Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie (NLS) at the two hour mark, having pit early with the No.77 Schubert Motorsport BMW to offset their strategy.

Having set a 7:52.393 to take pole in Qualifying (read the full report here), David Pittard led the four hour race on lap one with the No.47 KCMG Mercedes. The No.7 Konrad Motorsport Lamborghini jumped from fourth to second, followed by the No.23 Gamota Racing and No.77 Schubert Motorsport BMWs, who swapped positions on the opening lap.

The No.33 KKrämer Racing Audi was due to start third, however the power unit issue which ended their qualifying also ended their race before it started, as the mechanics were unable to solve the problem in the 90 minute gap between qualifying and the race.

After a poor qualifying, the No.911 Manthey Porsche (nick named the "Grello") jumped from 15th to 11th by the end of the first lap on the Nordschleife with Ayhancan Güven at the wheel.

All starting groups were relatively clean, but the first code 60 came out within the fifteen minutes regardless, when the No.111 BMW325i from the SP7 class stopped at Streilstecke. On the same lap, the No.899 BMW M2 had a problem on the Döttinger Höhe, but managed to roll back to the pits.

Credit: Luna Maas

The front runners started gapping the rest of the field, but behind the two BMW fought hard for third, and the No.5 Black Falcon and No.44 Falken Motorsports Porsches were drawn into the fight when Marco Wittmann tried a move on the outside of the No.23 at Sabine-Schmitz-Kurve. Traffic played its part in the fight, allowing the No.44 to get past the No.5.

Later in the stint, the No.23 BMW caught and overtook the second placed No.7 Lamborghini, putting the Pro-Am car in a good position for the remainder of the race.

The first crash occurred a few laps later, when the No.491 Hyundai i30N hit the wall on the Grand Prix Circuit after getting hit by the No.902 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car. The No.902 was black flagged and handed a drive through penalty for the incident later in the race.

The popular BMW Z4 GT3 was the second car with terminal damage, it wasn't clear what happened, but the broadcast showed the car pointing in the wrong direction on the Nordschleife with a broken rear left suspension. The Z4 is a passion project aiming to race the BMW in the Nürburgring 24h for the first time since 2018. Having not raced the first two rounds of the NLS, missing a large portion of the race today is brutal for their preparation.

The No.77 BMW and No.911 Porsche took a gamble on pitting early to offset their strategy, which gives them a lower minimum pit time per regulation. This put the two cars first and second in the SP9 class, however they will face higher minimum pit times in the final hour of the race as a consequence.

The No.77 BMW maintained its lead, but the No.911 Porsche fell back to fourth, behind the No.47 Mercedes and No.23 BMW. At the two hour mark the top five was rounded out by the No.44 Porsche, ahead of the No.65 Ford, which started in 18th position.

The Ford will move ahead of the No.44 at the next pit stop, as Ben Leuchter picked up an 87 second penalty for travelling 117kmh in a code 60 (60kmh limit).

Race Midpoint Top 5

1. No.77 Schubert Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 EVO

2. No.47 KCMG Mercedes-AMG GT3

3. No.23 Gamota Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO

4. No.911 Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 R

5. No.44 Falken Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R