Racing has stopped overnight at the Nürburgring 24 Hours on the Nordschleife, as heavy rainfall and standing water make conditions too dangerous to continue. Only seven hours of running had been achieved.
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DRIVER REPORTS | QUALIFYING: TIM SCHEERBARTH – THURSDAY | LARS KERN | BEN TUCK | THOMAS KIEFER | DAVID PITTARD | MANUEL METZGER | TIM SCHEERBARTH
DRIVER REPORTS | RACE SATURDAY: BEN TUCK | THOMAS KIEFER | LARS KERN | SUNDAY: TIM SCHEERBARTH | BEN TUCK | FINISH: TIM SCHEERBARTH | LARS KERN | BEN TUCK | THOMAS KIEFER
Racing is intended to resume at 8:00 CET local time at the earliest, according to event organisers.
The race had begun in wet conditions at 15:30 local time and has proven to be challenging for drivers. Conditions eased slightly shortly after the race start, but significantly worsened in the late night leading to the halting of the race due to standing water on track.
Dries Vanthoor and the #1 Audi Sport Team Phoenix car will lead the race at the restart, having gained a 17.9-second lead over the #29 Audi Sport Team Land R8 LMS GT3 machine piloted by Kelvin van der Linde. 16 SP9 (GT3) cars will remain on the lead lap at the race resumption.
A number of off-road excursions courtesy of the tough conditions has resulted in a few casualties in the SP9 class, notably two leading machines from Mercedes which dominated the opening phase of the race.
The #4 Mercedes-AMG Team HRT led much of the early race but was out on lap 28 after Manual Metzger had a collision coming out of Kleine Karussell.
This was followed on lap 37 by the leading #9 Mercedes-AMG Team Getspeed driven by Raffaele Marciello when it spun at Adenauer Forst, continued on its way before hitting the wall at Kallenhard. After a night of repairs the car will restart two laps down from 19th place.
The #21 Konrad Motorsport Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo featured in the top 3 for the first few hours of the race before stopping on track near Bergwerk with Franck Perera at the wheel inside hour three.
The #100 Walkenhorst Motorsport BMW M6 GT3 had an accident at the exit of Brünnchen just before two hours were in the books. The car has been repaired and returned to the track just prior to the red flag.
Race leader Dries Vanthoor and third-placed Christopher Haase also experienced some hairy moments, however were able to continue after their spin.
At the race restart, the top 6 cars will be:
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