This year the 6 hours of Nurburgring started out under heavy skies. But the cars, the history of the place and our all-access pass did not dampen our spirits one bit. This race takes place in the smaller closed GP – Strecke track of the Nurburgring complex. This modern 16 turn, 5.15 km track, while no match for the legendary Nordschleife, is a pretty technical circuit nevertheless. This round is the last in the European leg of the series and gives some of the teams who didn’t fare too well in the series to claw back and gain momentum going into the North American and Asian legs of the championship.
The race started off with the Toyota TS050 Hybrid of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Lopez at the top of the grid in the LMP1 category. They were followed by the two Porsche 919 Hybrids. Eventually, it was a Porsche 1-2 finish after the Toyota suffered a fuel pump failure and lost five laps as a result. This meant that the Porsche No. 2 of Timo Bernhard, Brendon Hartley and Earl Bamber now had a 30 point lead. In the LMGTE Pro class, Ferrari were the winners with the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari 488 holding out a strong challenge from Aston Martin, Ford and Porsche. The other two places on the podium were taken by Porsche.
The Dempsey-Proton Porsche of Christian Ried, Marvin Dienst and Matteo Cairolio took the win in the LMGTE Am category. This crew held off the Spirit of Race Ferrari and Aston Martin Racing cars to take a joint lead in this category. This year’s race was thrilling with constant squabbles across all the categories. A few clear leaders emerged and things are sure to heat up in the rest of the season when they are challenged by the other contenders.
Photography by Antoine Dellenbach
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