Nurburgring 24 Hours: BMW wins after penalty for…

Rowe BMW took Nurburgring 24 Hours victory after a penalty for the leading Manthey EMA Porsche following a clash, which meant that victory went to Raffaele Marciello, Kelvin van der Linde, Jesse Krohn and Augusto Farfus.

The race looked to be in control for the #911 Porsche, driven by Kevin Estre, Ayhancan Guven and Thomas Preining, after a tense duel that saw both cars separated by less than half a minute at the flag.

But a post-race 100-second penalty handed to Estre for causing a collision while lapping the #179 Dorr Aston Martin reversed the result to hand victory to the #98 BMW.

Estre had launched the GT4 car into a roll, which the pursuing Rowe BMW narrowly avoided, and Manthey EMA Porsche immediately protested the penalty as the battle raged on track.

Earlier in the race, a well-timed caution handed the Porsche a crucial advantage, allowing it to regain the lead and stay ahead, especially since Rowe’s final pitstop came one lap earlier.

At the line, Estre held a 22.190s margin but the penalty dropped the #911 to second, with the protest rejected on the final lap of the race.

It’s the second Nurburgring triumph for the Rowe outfit, while for Marciello and Krohn it was their maiden win at the event. Farfus collected his second (after 2010) and van der Linde his third, following earlier triumphs with Audi in 2017 and 2022.

#911 Manthey EMA Porsche 911 GT3 R (992): Kevin Estre, Ayhancan Guven, Thomas Preining (Photo by: Gruppe C GmbH)

Starting from pole, the ‘Grello’ Porsche had clear air in the early stages, while the Rowe BMW had to fight through the pack, before a bizarre twist after just 90 minutes, which saw a power outage in the pits cause the fuel pumps to fail, triggering a red flag that lasted for over two hours.

Once racing resumed at 7:45pm local time, #911 Porsche reclaimed the lead, while Rowe’s BMW began climbing from ninth, surged into podium contention, while a 32s penalty for a clash with a Cayman was later withdrawn after new footage cleared van der Linde.

Porsche dominated the night-time running and by halfway Rowe BMW had fallen more than two and a half minutes behind.

But BMW began to claw back ground as Sunday dawned and by 10am it had reeled in the lead car and under pressure Estre made the pivotal mistake: in the high-speed triple-right at Wehrseifen, he collided with a Prospect Racing Aston Martin GT4.

The battle for third was equally fraught, as the #28 Abt Lamborghini Christian Engelhart, Luca Engstler and Marco Mapelli held a strong grip on the final podium spot, as both Huracans run by Abt were strong through the night, but lacked pace in daytime conditions.

But disaster struck with just 30 minutes to go as a driveshaft failure - the same issue that had earlier plagued the sister #27 car - forced the #28 into the pits.

That promoted the #54 Dinamic Porsche of Bastian Buus, Matteo Cairoli, Loek Hartog and Joel Sturm into third after a clean and consistent run, as the #28 Lamborghini took fourth after repairs.