24h Nürburgring – 16h report: Two leaders crashed in the night

Big and dramatic changes happened in the early night hours of 43rd ADAC Zürich 24h Nürburgring with retirement of leading cars #30 Porsche 911 GT3 R of Frikadelli Racing and #1 Audi R8 LMS of Audi Sport Team Phoenix.

First inccident happened at 11pm when Frikadelli Racing’s Patrick Pilet had collision with #31 Mercedes of Car Collection Motorsport and then finished in the barrier. Porsche was badly damaged but Pilet luckily wasn’t hurt.

After that #1 Audi of last years winners Team Phoenix was in the lead, but only until 59th lap. Christian Mamerow crashed at Pflanzgarten and retired. Drivers wasn’t hurt, except hurted pride because of retirement.

Two more car from leading pack retired – #19 of Team Schubert and #4 Audi of Team Phoenix. Audi spun on oil at Steilstrecke/Klostertal and was hit heavily by another spinning car. Most important: The drivers involved are okay.

There is a still enough high performance cars and thrilling battle for the victory continued. In the tough conditions of dark and occasional rain important wasn’t speed but to stay clear of troubles. Trouble-free ride made that #44 Porsche 997 GT3 R of Falken Motorsports took the lead in the night.

In the following hours leaders are changing depending of pit-stops, but three cars were much at the top: #44 Porsche, #25 BMW of Team Marc VDS and #28 Audi of Team WRT. After 16 hours and 100 laps at P1 was #28 Audi.