Porsche wins thriller following fight with Audi
The Manthey Racing Porsche of Laurens Vanthoor, Michael Christensen and Frederic Makowiecki claimed victory in the four-hour Nordschleife season opener, after a thrilling battle.
Niklas Krutten led the race going into the second half in his Schubert Motorsport BMW, but Vanthoor and Christopher Mies (Land-motorsport Audi) both found a way past. Then Mies, with two wheels skimming the grass, found a way through at the Dottinger Hohe kink to take the lead.
The battle continued into the final stint, with Makowiecki in the Porsche and youngster Jusuf Owega – dubbed “the Kimi Raikkonen of GT3” by Mies for his taciturn nature! – in the Audi. Places were swapped, but Makowiecki hung on to win by just over a second. Third was the KCMG Porsche of Dennis Olsen, Alexandre Imperatori and Josh Burdon.
Top Mercedes was the HRT car of Raffaele Marciello, Luca Stolz and Manuel Metzger in fourth, while Krutten shared with Alexander Sims, Jesse Krohn and Marco Holzer to claim fifth.
Axcil Jefferies impressively set a new qualifying lap record to take pole in the Konrad Motorsport Lamborghini, which faded in the race with tyre problems. The other KCMG Porsche of Patrick Pilet led early on before a collision with a Cayman put the car out of the race.
World Touring Car title-winning uncle and nephew Yvan Muller and Yann Ehrlacher combined to win the BMW M240i class on a pleasant family day out as they warmed up for their season.