7:40pm… Pedro Lamy (N°1 BMW) had just overtaken the N°2 Ferrari to take the lead when he tangled with a slower car and spun after going straight-on at Karrussell. To turn round, the Portuguese driver drove against oncoming cars for some distance, a fault which earned the N°1 BMW handed a three-minute “stop&go” penalty a few hours later.

8:00pm… the pole-winning N°2 Hankook Team Farnbacher Ferrari had just recovered the lead when it was forced to pit for work to its front-right suspension. This handed the provisional lead to the N°9 Porsche Hybrid. The Italian machine re-joined 42 minutes later in 55^th place.

8:39pm… the Porsche Hybrid could be seen crawling round the circuit at slow speed with a broken gearbox. The hour-and-a-half it took the team to change the ‘box caused the N°9 Porsche GT R Hybrid to fall back 12 laps, depriving it of any realistic chance of winning this year’s Nürburgring 24 Hours.

The lead was then inherited by another Manthey Racing-run Porsche/MICHELIN, namely the “conventionally”-engined N°18 car of Lieb/Lhur/Bernhard/Dumas (the N°11 car entered by the team for the same four drivers was withdrawn from the race after 13 laps) which stayed in front until its pit-stop at the end of the 34^th lap.

9:30pm… the N°30 Mercedes SLS AMG GT3/MICHELIN recovered the lead (after briefly holding first place on Lap 1 thanks to a lightning start by Christian Mamerow). As darkness moved in over the Eifel Mountains, the N°18, 30, 22 and 32 cars continued to trade the lead as a function of their respective pit-stop strategies.

Shortly before midnight, the N°22 Mercedes fell back two laps, while the N°30 sister car (2^nd) was reported to be in difficulty on the track.

One-third of the way into the race, the N°18 Porsche leads after completing 52 laps (1,320km), with the second-placed N°22 Mercedes 3m32s back, and the third-placed N°76 BMW Z4 GT3 4m18s adrift. Although the fastest Audis have been keeping themselves to themselves since the start of the race, the N°16, 15 and 14 cars are currently fourth, fifth and sixth, some five minutes behind the leader.

Michelin, Nürburgring 24 Hours 2011, Porsche GT3 RSR