WinWard Mercedes takes a dominant victory at Nurburgring

At the end of 24 hours the WinWard Mercedes team stands victorious. Maro Engel, Maxime Martin, Luca Stoltz, and Fabian Schiller give Mercedes its first win in over a decade at the Nurburgring. Between the two WinWard entered cars Mercedes were the dominant car with the number 3 Max Verstappen car leading the most laps until a drive shaft failed with 3.5 hours remaining. The two WinWard entered Mercedes continuously swapped places for the lead between the 6th and 11th hours of the race while they built a very comfortable gap in front of the field. Maro Engel was able to negotiate rain showers in the final hour of the race finishing two minutes ahead of second place. The 80

Car started in 25th due to a crash in qualifying. The number 84 ABT Lamborghini brought it home second with a close battle with the the Walkenhorst Aston Martin rounding out the top three. The 84 was able to rebound from a puncture on the opening lap to finish on the podium. Many of the race favorite contenders were taken out early ending their chances. The lone Ferrari driven by Thierry Vermuelen crashed at Hatzenbach in the third hour getting caught out by a back marker. The 911 Manthey Racing Porsche driven by Kevin Estre spun at Brunnchen and looped backwards into the barriers this was cause to oil being layed down on the racing surface. The same fate also happened to the 64 HRT Mustang of Arjun Maini at the same corner with a much heavier impact. Problems for the teams allowed the very unique BMW M3 Touring 24H rising up the grid it evened passed both WinWard Mercedes in the 6th hour with Connor De Phillippi at the wheel. It went on to win its class in SPX. Only 18 of the 41 entered GT3 cars finished the race, with Daniel Juncadella returning back to the race in the final 10 minutes with a repaired car allowing Max Verstappen’s entered car to finish the race.