Land Motorsport wins 24 Hours of Nürburgring after late drama

Land Motorsport’s #29 Audi R8 LMS crossed the finish line as the victorious car after 24 hours of racing at the famous Nürburgring Nordschleife circuit in the 45th edition of the 24 hours of Nürburgring.

Connor de Phillipi, Christopher Mies, Markus Winkelhock and Kelvin van der Linde were leading for most of the race but dropped to P3 after some technical problems with les than an hour to go. Team WRT’s #9 Audi and Rowe Racing’s BMW M6 GT3 progressed in front of #29 Audi.

Rowe Racing’s BMW finished the race in the second place

Then, with half an hour to go, the rain started at some parts of the track. The #29 Audi was on the right sector of the track to pit for the wet tyres on time and returned into the lead on the penultimate lap. Other two rival crews were struggling for one lap with the slicks on the wet asphalt. They reached the pits too late to fight for the win.

On the last lap, Nick Catsburg overtook Rene Rast and captured P2 for Rowe Racing. Catsburg’s teammates were Markus Palttala, Alexander Sims and Richard Westbrook. The #9 Audi, driven by Rene Rast, Nico Muller, Marcel Fassler and Robin Frijns, finished in the third place.

Team WRT’s #9 Audi finished in the third place

For Markus Winkelhock, this is his third win at 24-hour race, Christopher Mies is the winner for the second time while De Phillipi and Van de Linde climb to the top podium spot for the first time.

Photos: nuerburgring.de,