Nürburgring 24h Warm Up and BoP changes: Lionspeed GP woes continue, as Heinrich crashes with back marker

Credit: Luna Maas

The Nürburgring 24h warm up is meant for teams to conduct system checks, to be sure the car is running without any issues. Lap time is irrelevant, and the priority is to stay on the track; inevitably with a 161 car field a few cars failed to do this.

The No.24 Lionspeed GP Porsche 911 GT3 R came to blows with the No.277 Ravenol Motorsport by MDM Racing BMW 318ti. Heinrich, in the Porsche, was approaching the BMW on the exit to the chicane on the Grand Prix loop, then pulled to the BMW's right on entry to the left hander which joins the Nordschleife, having not expected this, the BMW also pulled to the right to repeat the Grand Prix loop (instead of entering the Nordschleife) and made contact with Heinrich.

The contact resulted in both cars finding the gravel. While the BMW had to be pulled out by the marshals, the Porsche managed to get out on its own steam and return to the pits. Lionspeed GP have confirmed the car is not "seriously damaged" and will make the start, however they may face a penalty for the nature in which they entered the pit lane.

The severity of the damage to the No.277 has not yet been confirmed, but it did not look terminal.

The crash comes as another hit to the No.24 Lionspeed GP car's week, which crashed in Qualifying 1 and only qualified 24th once the car was repaired, far lower than a car with such a high calibre of drivers would expect (Laurens Vanthoor, Laurin Heinrich and Ricardo Feller).

The remainder of the SP9 cars managed to have a clean session, with the small exception of the No.69 Doerr Motorsport McLaren, which obliterated a cone on the Grand Prix circuit. A few cars from lower classes had issues, including the No.577 asBest Racing Cupra Leon and the No.519 Ravenol Japan Toyota Supra, which needed recovering from the Nordschleife.

Maro Engel returned to the track after his crash in qualifying yesterday, the Winward Racing mechanics had to go overnight to replace a significant volume of parts, including the left side suspension and the exhaust. The team will hope they have scrutinised the car thoroughly enough for damage, as any remaining cracks or unexpected irregularities could cause issues throughout the race.

Although it bares no relevance, the No.80 Mercedes set the quickest time in the warm up, with an 8:32.206, four seconds quicker than the second placed Prosport Mercedes.

The weather is expected to come in full force later. It's impossible to predict perfectly, but there is an extremely high chance of rain hitting the track over night, if not earlier. The clouds did try to foreshadow the race ahead, as there were a few drops of rain at Hohenrain, and reportedly sleet at Höhe Acht.

There were a handful of Balance of Performance (BoP) changes overnight, the Lamborghini's and Porsches will carry an extra 5kg of weight, and the BMWs an extra 10kg. In addition to the Lamborghini's weight, its engine restrictor has been reduced by half a millimetre, which will limit the engine's power output. Similarly, Ford have been hit with a one millimetre reduction on one of their restrictors, but the other one in their twin-restrictor system is unaffected.

The No.84 Red Bull Team ABT Lamborghini will start on pole for the race, which will start at 15:00 local time (14:00 BST) this afternoon, and run two times around the clock. The race can be watched on YouTube, or followed via DIVEBOMB's live updates which will cover the full 24 hours.