At the end, the sun was shining brightly as Alessio Picariello crossed the finish line as the winner. Together with Klaus Bachler, the Belgian took the fifth win of the season for Falken Motorsports in the number 3 Porsche 911 GT3 R. A place on the top step of the podium was the well-deserved reward for a challenging day of racing in the Green Hell. Second place went to Frank Stippler and Nico Bastian in the Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO 2 of Scherer Sport PHX ahead of Dennis Fetzer, Michele Beretta and Jusuf Owega in the Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Team Advan x HRT. Meanwhile, the battle for the championship in the ADAC Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie has been postponed.
Bachler and Picariello’s victory in the 55th Adenauer ADAC Rundstrecken-Trophy was anything but a walk in the park. In cold and wet conditions in qualifying, Bachler initially set the fastest time before going off the track with the Falken 911 and crashing into the barriers. The Falken team used the break until the race to repair the car. The 911 was the last car to roll onto the grid just in time with Bachler at the wheel. He defended this position for four laps. Because the GPS system was not working properly as a result of the repair, Falken was ordered to the pits by race control with the so-called ‘fried egg flag’. During the unscheduled stop, the team decided to make a courageous tire change: Bachler was the first driver to switch to slicks. Even though the first few meters were difficult, he managed to pull out a lead. At the next stop, Picariello took over the wheel and also made contact with the crash barrier at Metzgesfeld. The damage did not affect his race pace and he continued his drive in changing weather conditions.
“The Nordschleife really was a big challenge today,” admitted Picariello. “Klaus completed two fantastic stints in difficult conditions and then handed the car over to me with a big lead in first place. For me, it was still primarily a matter of survival with the traffic and the changing conditions.” Bachler added: “Today really was a very emotional day with lots of highs and lows. After qualifying, I would never have thought that we would still be racing today. The team then did a great job. The praise goes to our mechanics.”
Nico Bastian with a strong Audi debut
Bastian impressed straight away in his first outing in the GT3 Audi and set the fastest race lap in 8:01.545 minutes. “It was a great honor for me to drive the winning car of this year’s Scherer Sport PHX 24-hour race together with Frank,” said the 34-year-old. “The biggest challenge yesterday during testing and today in the race was the weather. I set this strong lap time on my first dry lap. A lot of things were new territory for me this weekend. But sometimes that’s exactly what you need. In the end, we finished second and I really enjoyed it.”
After the first Mercedes-AMG victory in the 2024 6h race, the Advan x HRT team confirmed their good performance with third place. “We really struggled with the conditions in qualifying and only ended up 21st on the grid,” said Fetzer. “Then things went really well in the race, the sun came out at the end and we finished on the podium – that’s quite encouraging.”
Tobias Müller and Black Falcon win PETN Cup2
Behind the leading trio, Black Falcon Team 48 Losch with Tobias Müller and Noah Nagelsdiek not only celebrated class victory in the Cup 2 of the Porsche Endurance Trophy Nürburgring, but also the title in the popular one-make cup. “I used to cheer with my father when he was racing and today I’m celebrating the biggest success of my career – I’m almost lost for words,” said Müller emotionally. “The key to our success was not only our speed but also our consistency. We scored a lot of extra points with pole position and the fastest race lap. We also managed to make a clean sweep today.”
In the Cup 3 class, Joshua Bednarski, Lucas Daugaard and Moritz Oberheim from AVIA W&S Motorsport have already sealed the deal in NLS4. In the overall standings of the ADAC Nürburgring Endurance Series, the team has not yet achieved this feat. The trio’s Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 CS was badly damaged in an accident during testing on Friday, meaning they were unable to compete. “Unfortunately, our Cayman could not be repaired overnight,” admitted team boss Patrick Wagner. “Unfortunately, our drivers were condemned to watch. But in four weeks’ time, we’ll be back in full force to clinch the NLS championship after the PETN title.” The class victory went to SRS Team Sorg Rennsport with drivers Heiko Eichenberg, Fabio Grosse and Patrik Grütter.
Adrenalin keeps the championship open
With their fifth victory in the seventh race, Sven Markert, Ranko Mijatovic and Toby Goodman in the BMW M240i Racing of Adrenalin Motorsport Team Mainhatten Wheels kept their title chances open. Daniel Mertens and Joshua Hislop, on the other hand, are out of the race. In the Hyundai i30N, the duo first suffered a technical defect, which was quickly rectified, and then an accident. Mertens Motorsport did not bury its head in the sand here either. Mertens/Hislop were classified sixth, but unfortunately no longer have a chance of winning the championship.
The fastest car in the alternative fuels class was driven by Benjamin Leuchter, Dominik and Marcel Fugel in ninth place overall. The Porsche 911 GT3 Cup from Max Kruse Racing is powered by 102-octane Shell E20 fuel and proved to be extremely powerful. At times, the trio even finished second overall. The team’s Volkswagen Golf GTI Clubsport 24h also relies on this fuel and took second place in the class. The long-standing pioneers of sustainability in the Green Hell had to settle for third place. Rapper Smudo (Die Fantastischen Vier) drove the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup from Four Motors Bioconcept-Car together with Michelle Halder and Henrik Bollerslev.
The finale of the ADAC Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie will take place on November 16. The 56th ADAC Barbarossa Prize of MSC Sinzig runs over the usual distance of four hours and concludes the 2024 Nordschleife season.
