The sun was shining when Alessio Picariello crossed the finish line as the winner. Together with Klaus Bachler, the Belgian took the fifth victory of the season for Falken Motorsports in the Porsche 911 GT3 R with the starting number 3. The place on the top step of the podium was the well-deserved reward for a demanding race day in the Green Hell. Frank Stippler and Nico Bastian took second place in the Scherer Sport PHX Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO 2, with Dennis Fetzer, Michele Beretta and Jusuf Owega in the Team Advan x HRT Mercedes-AMG GT3 finishing in fourth. The battle for the championship in the ADAC Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie has meanwhile 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 during qualifying, Bachler initially set the best time before he went off the track with the Falken 911 and crashed into the barrier. The Falken team used the break until the race to repair the car. As the last car to start, the 911 rolled to the starting line just in time, with Bachler at the wheel. He defended this position for four laps. Because the GPS system was not working properly due to the repair, race control ordered Falken to the pits with the so-called 'fried egg flag'. At the unscheduled stop, the team decided to make a bold tire change: Bachler was the first driver to switch to slicks. Even though the first few meters were difficult, he managed to build up a lead. At the next stop, Picariello took over the wheel and also had contact with the guard rail in the butcher's field. The damage did not affect the racing speed and he continued the race in changing weather conditions.
“The Nordschleife was really a big challenge today,” admitted Picariello. “Klaus did two fantastic stints in difficult conditions and then handed the car over to me with a big lead over first place. For me, it was still primarily a matter of survival with the traffic and changing conditions.” Bachler added: ”Today was really a very emotional day with many ups and downs. After qualifying, I didn't think we would be racing today. The team then did a great job. All credit to our mechanics.”
Nico Bastian makes strong Audi debut
In his first outing in the GT3 Audi, Bastian impressed right from the start, setting 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 24-hour race, Scherer Sport PHX, together with Frank,” said the 34-year-old. “The biggest challenge was the weather, both yesterday during the test and today in the race. In my first dry lap, I then immediately set this strong lap time. For me, a lot of this weekend was new territory. But sometimes that's exactly what you need. In the end, we finished second and I had a lot of fun.”
After the first Mercedes-AMG victory in 2024 at the 6-hour race, the Advan x HRT team confirmed their good performance with third place. “In qualifying, we really struggled with the conditions and ended up only in 21st place on the grid,” said Fetzer. “In the race, things went quite well, the sun came out at the end, and we made it onto the podium – that's quite a consolation.”
Tobias Müller and Black Falcon win PETN Cup2
Behind the top trio, the 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 brand trophy. “I used to share in the excitement with my father when he was racing, and today I'm getting the biggest success of my career – I'm almost lost for words,” said an emotional Müller. ”The key to our success, apart from our speed, was consistency. We scored a lot of extra points with pole position and the fastest race lap. Today, we managed to win again.”
In the Cup 3 class, Joshua Bednarski, Lucas Daugaard and Moritz Oberheim of AVIA W&S Motorsport wrapped up the title at NLS4. The team has not yet managed this feat in the overall standings of the ADAC Nürburgring Endurance Series. The trio's Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 CS was badly damaged in an accident during Friday's test, meaning that they were unable to start. “Unfortunately, our Cayman could not be repaired overnight,” admitted team manager Patrick Wagner. ‘Our drivers were unfortunately condemned to watch. But in four weeks, we will be back in full force to win the NLS championship after winning the PETN title.’ The class victory went to the 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 the Adrenalin Motorsport Team Mainhatten Wheels kept their title chances open. Daniel Mertens and Joshua Hislop, on the other hand, are out of the race. With the Hyundai i30N, the duo first suffered a technical defect that could be quickly rectified and then an accident. Mertens Motorsport did not bury their heads in the sand here either. Mertens/Hislop were classified sixth, but unfortunately no longer have a chance of winning the championship.
Benjamin Leuchter, Dominik and Marcel Fugel drove the fastest car in the alternative fuels class to ninth place overall. The Porsche 911 GT3 Cup from Max Kruse Racing is powered by Shell E20 fuel with 102 octane and performed extremely well with it. 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 its class. The long-standing pioneers in 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 16th.