The biggest event for the Nürburgring is by far and away the 24 hour race. Here’s a recap and what’s been going on so far!

Thursday 3. June 2021
All the team members have put in their requisite laps. A miscommunication with the tyres meant Janine wasn’t able to put down some proper laps, but this is what the qualifications run up is for! Weather was slightly damp – not enough for full wet tyres. As always the track had mixed traction conditions throughout the different parts of the track.

Friday 4. June 2021
This was Moritz’ day! He put down a few good laps in Quali 3, but the real magic happened during top qualifying round 2. The heavens had opened up and the track was wet. Thunder, lightening and standing water everywhere. Even amongst these conditions, Moritz brought the team up to P7 overall (P2 in class) with a qualifying time of 10:11.786. This was an amazing effort and has the team very excited for the race tomorrow.

Saturday 5. June 2021
Day of the race! As the cars lined up on the main straight, the weather looked like it was going to hold. Dry all around, and most cars went with slicks or cut slicks. But, the Nürburgring being what it is, the heavens opened up and chaos ensued. Especially around Aremberg (reminiscent of the 2016 N24h race) but this time standing water instead of hail. Moritz got boxed in at the start unfortunately dropping back a few places, and conditions continued to be tricky for Markus in the next stint, even with the change to wets. By the time Maxime got behind the wheel, a dry line was forming and it was possible to get back on to cut slicks again. Janine didn’t have much luck either, with multiple code 60’s on the circuit, making it impossible to find a rhythm and to keep the heat in the tyres. As night fell, the team were in the low P20’s. At 22:35 the Eifel weather struck another blow. Fog set in and made visibility impossible for the race to continue. This felt like another throwback to the 2020 race, but this time for fog, not for rain! Conditions stayed the same throughout the night.

Sunday 6. June 2021
The morning doesn’t bring any more joy, both the 6am and 7am weather check not bringing any different news. But at 9:00, action is slowly starting again! Cars were getting ready and lining up, starting from 9:30 with the race re-start scheduled for 10:40 which came and went, with the visibility still not improving. A little more delay, but at 11:40 things started up again! As of the race restart, the team sat in P4 in class, P23 overall. Class P1 & P2 were one lap ahead, so the battle for P3 was the goal. The overall strategy switched from a 24h endurance race to more of a sprint race. Moritz was in behind the wheel and doing his best to bring the best possible result. The overall strategy had to change since the race restart was pushed back further and further. As the race went on, the field thinned out a bit with a few incidents. The big battle for the team was with the WMT Ferrari for P3 in class. By the end of Moritz’ last stint there was about 20 seconds difference, but they Ferrari just closed up the gap and proved too fast, taking P3 in the last few laps of the race. Maxime closed out the race with a great driving effort. Overall position for the 2021 Nürburgring 24h race was P4 in class SP9 PRO-AM, and P14 overall.