+ Farfus, Krohn, Marciello and Van der Linde beat Manthey EMA’s penalised Porsche
+ Dinamic 911 completes all-IGTC podium
+ Result: ADAC Ravenol 24h Nürburgring
BMW beat Porsche in a nail-biting Intercontinental GT Challenge encounter at the Nordschleife where ROWE Racing’s Augusto Farfus, Jesse Krohn, Raffaele Marciello and Kelvin van der Linde scored a record extending 21st ADAC Ravenol 24h Nürburgring victory for their manufacturer.
It was also BMW’s fourth straight IGTC triumph and second of the season after Van der Linde and Farfus won at Bathurst in February.
The sole M4 GT3 – an Intercontinental winner for the first time in Evo spec – started 17th after missing out on Top Qualifying but unleashed its true potential in the race while other leading contenders faltered.
Manthey EMA’s 911 GT3 R shared by Kevin Estre, Thomas Preining and Ayhancan Güven was the only true exception. Indeed, the car that started on pole led the vast majority of laps and wasn’t headed after Saturday’s restart until Sunday lunchtime when Farfus passed Güven.
That followed the race’s defining moment when Estre nerfed a GT4 car into the barriers whilst under intense pressure from Marciello. The contact flipped the Aston Martin and ultimately resulted in a 100-second penalty, which was only applied as the cars took the chequered flag following Manthey EMA’s unsuccessful appeal.
The Porsche actually finished ahead of the BMW after an unfortunately timed slow zone caused the cars to swap places during a pitstop sequence in the final three hours. The M4 officially won by 1m17s once the penalty was applied.
Dinamic’s Porsche didn’t have the pace of the two leading contenders but crucially enjoyed a relatively drama-free 24 hours en route to third in the hands of Matteo Cairoli, Bastian Buus, Joel Sturm and Loek Hartlog.
The race began with Preining leading the field away from pole. But it was Kondo Racing with Rinaldi’s Ferrari that found itself out front when an electrical blackout in the pit garages forced organisers to red flag the race for 90 minutes.
It resumed at 20:00 local time with the Grello Porsche reinstated as the leader, a position it then firmly cemented as dusk turned to darkness.
Behind, Van der Linde initially led the charge before Marciello eroded his BMW’s two-and-a-half-minute deficit during the night and early hours. ROWE’s crew continued to make inroads thereafter but it was Marciello who forced Estre to commit the mistake with five hours and forty minutes remaining that ultimately proved decisive.
Porsche might have missed out on victory but it did collect second and third place IGTC manufacturers’ points courtesy of Dinamic which inherited positions from other pre-race favourites.
They included both Mercedes-AMG factory cars overseen by GetSpeed, which were firm features of the top six until separate issues struck on Sunday. The #14 car retired with a drivetrain problem in the early hours before the ‘Purple Beast’ suffered front left suspension damage that prevented it from continuing competitively. Nevertheless, it still completed enough distance to score sixth place manufacturers’ points.
Instead, it was the Pro-Am car entered by SR Motorsport by Schnitzelalm that collected the bulk of Affalterbach’s points. 13th overall represented a remarkable turnaround for Kenneth Heyer, Jay Härtling, Jannes Fittje and Christopher Brück whose car had to be recovered on a flatbed after shedding a wheel just before the early red flag period.
Its cause was aided by the sole Ferrari retiring with three-and-a-half hours to go. Thomas Neubauer had qualified the car an excellent second and that pace was apparent throughout the race despite two punctures checking the 296 GT3’s progress. The entry also featuring David Perel, Axcil Jefferies and 2023 winner Felipe Fernandez Laser was classified fifth in IGTC’s manufacturer result after covering more than 70% of the winner's laps.
More Intercontinental points are up for grabs in just seven days’ time when the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa marks the halfway stage in the globe-trotting GT3 series’ 2025 season.
