The six most dramatic moments of the Nürburgring 24h
- Benjamin Crundwell
- 4 minutes ago
- 5 min read
Written by Benjamin Crundwell
The Nürburgring 24h was filled with controversy and chaos, but what were the six turning points that changed the twice around the clock race?
No.16 Qualifying antics
One of the major moments in the Nürburgring 24h took place before the race even started. On Thursday evening the No.16 Scherer Sports Porsche had not yet set a lap time good enough for Top Qualifying.
The team sent Laurens Vanthoor out in the dying minutes to qualify the car for the next session. This took place at night, bringing fans brilliant onboards as the broadcast followed the car round the Nordschleife while Vanthoor wound through the traffic.
The No.16 car did end up making Top Qualifying, but as it turns out this was for the worst.
On his first run in Top Qualifying the next day, Laurens Vanthoor caught a snap of oversteer in the fast left hander of Schwedenkreuz, pushing him wide. This put him on the grass for the braking zone of the next corner, Aremberg. With no grip on the grass, the car spun round and hit the barrier at high speed, getting air time in the process.
Unable to repair the car before the race started, the Scherer Sport crew withdrew the No.16 Porsche after the crash. Vanthoor described the crash as the biggest of his career.
Audi hits Aston Martin then drag races Mercedes
Coming through a slow zone between Kesselchen and Mutkurve the No.34 Aston Martin, No.1 Audi and No.14 Mercedes were nose to tail - in that order.
When the slow zone ended, the Audi floored it, not realising the No.34 Aston Martin could not yet speed up due to traffic ahead. The Audi tried to take avoiding action, but still hit the back of the Aston Martin, meanwhile the Mercedes behind had slipped past to be the second car in the train, but had to take to the grass to avoid also hitting the Aston Martin.
Coming down the Döttinger Höhe on that lap, the Audi attempted to repass the Mercedes in a drag race down to Tiergarten. The battle was won by the Mercedes who was able to stay off the brakes slightly longer.
The three cars were battling for third place then, but would all retire before the end of the race, showing how brutal the 24 hours can be.
Red flag and restart
About 10 minutes after the Aston Martin, Audi and Mercedes had their scrap, the red flag mysteriously came out. It did not show up on the timing screen, but the marshals could be seen waving the flag that would temporarily stop the race.
It turns out the cause of the red flag was a power outage in the pit lane, which also explained why it was never on the timing screen. The problem had clearly been going on for at least a lap, as the broadcast had already shown shots of panic in the pit boxes where teams were losing their telemetry and streams.
This is a rare problem in motorsport, but it does happen. Most recently on a major scale, the Bahrain circuit suffered a power cut in the middle of the Formula One pre season testing.
Falken Motorsports Porsche hits back marker
The Falken Motorsport teams had been having a good year so far. Both their Porsches had won a race each in the NLS (Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie) and the team were some of the favourites to win the Nürburgring 24h.
Their weekend started a little ropey, with mechanical issues on both cars. The No.33 qualified in fourth and was running second after the red flag, however their fortune quickly turned.
The No.94 Cup 2 car spun on the exit of turn two, which is blind due to a barrier on the apex. The No.33 Porsche came round the second corner and hit the No.94, destroying the radiator and other important devices in the front of the car.
The Falken Motorsports crew could not fix the damage, rendering the car retired. The No.44 was surviving the race, until the mechanical issues re-emerged near the end of the race - meaning it was a double retirement for the blue cars.
Dacia retires in huge crash with Aston Martin
If you ask anyone at the Nürburgring who their favourite Nürburgring 24h competitor is, they'll say the Dacia Logan.
The Dacia had a bad start when it could not get off the start line, but the mechanics fixed the problem and it soon got under way. The Dacia made its way up the field as other cars retired, getting to 112th at one point, out of 134 starters.
Unfortunately, when there was seven hours left on the clock the Dacia started its final lap. Coming into Flugplatz the Dacia used it's indicator to let another car through. It is unclear how the accident happened as no cameras were pointing that way at the time, but it appeared as though the No.74 SP10 Aston Martin tried to follow the other car past the Dacia, but made contact and put them both in the wall.
Initially this sounds like the Aston Martin's fault, however a camera pointed at the entrance of the corner showed the Dacia leaving it's indicator on, meaning he should have let the Aston Martin by.
Regardless of what happened, the impact for the No.74 Aston Martin was massive, most likely the biggest of the race.
Estre rolling the No.179
With five and a half hours left on the clock, it was starting to look like the Grello was indestructible, having led nearly every lap so far.
A sudden turn in pace meant the No.98 Rowe Racing BMW closed right up to the back of the No.911 Manthey Porsche. The Grello suddenly couldn't afford to lose any time, or it would sacrifice its lead. As it approached traffic at miss-hit-misss, Grello risked going up the inside, but a mis-understanding between the two cars meant they touched and the back marker ended up upside down.
Grello received a 100 second penalty for the incident, which Manthey tried appealing. The appeal was rejected, so when Grello crossed the line first the winner was not yet decided. The No.98 BMW finished 20 seconds behind, which was well within the 100 second penalty, meaning they inherited victory despite having only led one lap during the race.
The No.98 was the only BMW entry on the GT3 grid this year, and it started 17th which makes this win all the more special to Rowe Racing and it's respective drivers.
