Winward Mercedes win Nürburgring 24 Hours, ABT Lamborghini beat Walkenhorst Aston Martin despite penalty
- DIVEBOMB Sportscars Team
- 49 minutes ago
- 5 min read
The No.80 Winward Mercedes won the Nürburgring 24 Hours after gaining over 20 places from their grid position, battling the sister No.3 Verstappen Mercedes for a large duration of the race and surviving the wet weather towards the end.
Maro Engel drove the No.80 Winward Mercedes across the line to take Winward Racing's first victory at the Nürburgring 24 Hours in a decade, alongside Luca Stolz, Fabian Schiller and Maxime Martin. Meanwhile, the sister No.3 Verstappen Mercedes run by Winward Racing, were forced into the garage after leading the race with just four hours remaining due to a driveshaft issue.
As it happened
On the 12 hour mark, the No.3 Verstappen Racing Mercedes was leading from the No.80 Winward Racing Mercedes of Maxime Martin. The No.80 was previously being driven by Maro Engel, who had a couple of close moments with Verstappen; this includes one particular heart in mouth moment where the two made contact in Tiergarten and Engel had to hold onto his Mercedes as he bumped over the grass.
To avoid further conflict, Mercedes decided to "freeze" the positions as their main focus was to win the Nürburgring 24h for the first time since 2016. Despite the contact with Verstappen, Engel said: "I had a lot of fun with max."
The first major moment in the second half of the race came when Steve Brown's (Super GT via YouTube) No.632 Black Falcon by Team Fanatec Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car found the tyre barrier at Wehrseifen. The car was leading its class before the crash, but could not continue after it. Brown was part of the "YouTube" car, they have won multiple Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie but are yet to win the Nürburgring 24h.
Approaching sunrise, Verstappen handed driving duties back in to Jules Gounon, who had a fairly uneventful stint before Lucas Auer took over the No.3 while track side fans started to wake up. Offset by one stint, Schiller got behind the No.80 for a few hours, before letting Luca Stolz in.
There was a brief moment of turmoil as oil leaked onto the track at Aremberg, causing multiple cars to slide off the track, including the No.81 BMW M3 Touring which was running inside the top five. Fortunately the M3 returned to the track without losing much time. An hour later the No.37 Prosport Racing Aston Martin crashed out on the Döttinger Höhe, caused by a rear right puncture.
The two leading Mercedes continued to have their positions frozen, but by the three-quarter mark of the race that was irrelevant anyways, as Verstappen re-took the No.3's wheel, and started pulling away from the No.80. Although Verstappen was quick, Patric Niederhauser was even quicker, setting lap times quicker than the pole time, in the No.84 Red Bull Team ABT Lamborghini.
The battle for third place was beginning to intensify between the No.99 Rowe Racing BMW and the No.34 Walkenhorst Aston Martin, with the gap closing to just 3 seconds, with the Aston Martin ahead of the BMW for the final spot on the podium. Dan Harper had closed the gap from 20 seconds earlier in the race. The pair would be inseparable for the rest of the race, with the gap fluctuating constantly between driver stints.
As rain narrowly avoided the circuit, the No.34 Walkenhorst Aston Martin would be hit with a 32-second penalty for overtaking under a yellow flag. This would mean that they lost time to the No.99 Rowe Racing BMW and some other cars around them. Although, it did not take them long to recover the lost time.
Whilst Maro Engel was unable to make any meaningful progress in catching Max Verstappen at the front of the field, with the gap sitting at around 30 seconds, the No.67 Ford Mustang of Dennis Olsen got some serious air time, over the crest before Schwedenkreuz.
One lap before pitting, Verstappen's No.3 Mercedes was nearly completely wiped out by a Porsche Cayman GT4, which hit the side of a Porsche GT3 car, spinning aggressively across the circuit and nearly smashing into Verstappen, who narrowly avoided the incident.
Eventually, both Verstappen and Engel would come into the pit lane. "The Dutchman" closed out his stint by opening a 50-second lead in the No.3 Verstappen Racing Mercedes, which with around four hours remaining, looked set to take the victory.
As Verstappen handed over to Daniel Juncadella, it became apparant later in the lap that there was a serious issue. Maro Engel has closed to the No.3 Verstappen Mercedes in the No.80 Winward Mercedes by a huge margin, closing down the 50 second lead to just 3 seconds over the line.
Juncadella pulled into the pits just two laps into his stint, and the No.3 Verstappen Racing Mercedes was pulled into the garage, forced to retire due to a drivetrain issue. Max Verstappen's debut at the Nürburgring 24h has ended in bitter disappointment after leading the race and battling with the sister No.80 Winward Mercedes for so long.
There would be more heartbreak and disappointment in the grandstands, as the Dacia Logan lost its' front left tyre on the Nordschleife, and began a long tow back to the pit lane. Luckily for the Logan, it eventually resurfaced and did see the chequered flag.
Engel would subsequently snatch the lead of the race for the No.80 Winward Mercedes, as a battle emerged between four cars behind, for the other two spots on the podium.
The No.84 Red Bull Team ABT Lamborghini was absolutely flying, with Mirko Bortolotti at the wheel. The Lamborghini squad eventually found themselves in second position, but crucially would be hit by an 86-second penalty for not respecting Code 60, speeding through a slow zone on the track.
The Lamborghini squad debated this with the stewards, refusing to serve the penalty in a pit stop and choosing to add the penalty onto their race time at the end of the 24 hours.
With the No.84 Lamborghini opting to have the penalty added post race, it quickly became qualifying lap after qualifying lap for the No.34 Walkenhorst Aston Martin, which was just 90 seconds behind. The Aston Martin squad needed to find a few extra seconds in order to secure second place, and had less than an hour to do so.
Meanwhile, the No.99 Rowe Racing BMW, driven by Dries Vanthoor was closing the gap to the No.34 Walkenhorst Aston Martin, as the pair were separated by just 20 seconds.
Crucially, in the final 30 minutes of the race, rain began to fall around the circuit, as some teams began preparing intermediate tyres. The leading No.80 Winward Mercedes struggled to cope with the heavier rain falling initially, not wanting to risk a crash that could ruin their race.
Going into the final lap, the No.80 Winward Mercedes continued to lead the race, as the No.84 Red Bull Team ABT Lamborghini had just an 85-second lead over the No.34 Walkenhorst Aston Martin team, with the Lamborghini carrying an 86-second penalty.
With rain continuing to fall heavier, the gap between second and third place came down massively, with the No.84 Lamborghini losing 10 seconds at the start of the lap due to running slick tyres. Meanwhile, the No.34 Aston Martin squad fit the intermediate tyres, and benefited from the tyre advantage, at least in the opening section of the track.
Engel brought the No.80 Winward Mercedes home to take an extraordinary victory at the Nürburgring 24 Hours, and the No.84 Red Bull Team ABT Lamborghini did manage to hold on to second place, as the No.34 Walkehorst Aston Martin got held up at Döttinger Höhe due to a Code 60.
At the end of the 24 hours, the podium consisted of the Winward Mercedes who came out on top, followed by the No.84 Lamborghini team and the No.34 Aston Martin squad.
The fan favourite No.300 Dacia Logan also came across the line to complete the 24 Hours.
