Nurburgring 24 Hours: Audi defeats BMW by 40 seconds for win

BMWs entered by Marc VDS and Team Schubert dominated qualifying and set the early pace but fell victim to accidents both on track and in the pits.

Martin Tomczyk went from the second row to lead the opening stint in his Team Schubert Z4, but that car was an early casualty when Claudia Hurtgen crashed it during the first of many showers of rain. Dirk Werner hit the barriers in the sister car shortly before midnight.

With the polesitting #26 Farfus/Muller/Adorf/Catsburg Marc VDS BMW delayed by a pit fire and the #2 Christodoulou/Buurman/Simonsen/Schneider Black Falcon Mercedes marooned on track with a missing wheel, the way was open for the three of the four new R8s entered by Phoenix and WRT to hit the front.

Two of those cars quickly fell by the wayside. First to go was the #4 Basseng/Fassler/Rockenfeller/Stippler Phoenix R8, which pitted for exhaust repairs and rejoined in 70th place before spinning out.

The leading #1 entry - and pre-race favourite - driven by 2014 winners Haase/Mamerow/Rast/Winkelhock also retired when Christian Mamerow crashed at Pflanzgarten.

For much of the final quarter the #25 Luhr/Martin/Palttala/Westbrook Marc VDS BMW and #28 WRT Audi took turns in the lead, pitting roughly 20 minutes apart, separated by a minute and a half on-track.

The #44 Dumbreck/Henzler/Ragginger/Imperatori Falken Porsche followed at an ever-growing margin, having incurred impact damage at the front and side.

Muller had a brief off near the exit of the grand prix loop in the 20th hour, but the #28 R8 spun harmlessly across the grass without reaching the barrier.

The car's eventful run-in continued shortly before midday during a routine pitstop, when it suffered its second fuel spillage-related flash fire of the weekend, losing nearly 30 seconds in the process.

Muller reclaimed that time and more and at the end of his stint, and with three hours to run, WRT placed Blancpain GT champion Vanthoor in the #28 and he continued to turn the screw on the #25 BMW.

Maxime Martin took over the Marc VDS BMW at the next stop and responded in kind, but after each completed their final stops around the turn of the final hour the cars emerged a minute apart with the Audi, now with Mies at the wheel, safely ahead.

The battle for fourth was partially determined by pitstops as the delayed #26 Marc VDS BMW finished ahead of the highest of the surviving Mercedes.

The #5 Black Falcon SLS led the race in the fourth hour until Abdulaziz Al Faisal took over and dropped back.

The more experienced Jaap van Lagen, Hubert Haupt and Yelmer Buurman brought it back into contention but the car made two more stops than the BMW overall.

WRT's #29 of Thiim/Joens/Kaffer/Vanthoor hauled itself back into the top ten at the finish after a long stop to repair front-end accident damage in the second hour.

Bentley's works-entered Continental GT3s showed frontrunning pace but the #84 Bleekemolen/Arnold/Menzel/Bruck car was eliminated by accident damage, while the #85 of Smith/Kane/Mayrick/Arnold spent the best part of five hours being recovered and repaired but returned to action and was still running at the chequered flag.

Aston Martin failed to get a car into the top 10 although the #007 Turner/Mucke/Lamy/Stanaway Vantage broke back into the top 20 after losing time to crash repairs.

Aston Martin did taste success in the SP8 class though, with the Bez/Banziger/Rose/Leemhuis entry taking class honours in 58th overall.

The unusual Franchitti/Lauck/Jahn/Mailleux Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus 003c supercar, running in a class of its own following the withdrawal of its sister car after an accident in practice, circulated without too much initial drama before suffering a power steering failure and then running into fuel-feed problems with five hours to go.

Leading results - 156 laps:

Pos  Drivers                                Team/Car                    Time/Gap
 1.  Mies/Sandstrom/Muller/Vanthoor         WRT Audi               24h00m00.000s
 2.  Martin/Luhr/Palttala/Westbrook         Marc VDS BMW                +40.729s
 3.  Dumbreck/Henzler/Ragginger/Imperatori  Falken Porsche                -1 lap
 4.  Farfus/Muller/Catsburg/Adorf           Marc VDS BMW                  -1 lap
 5.  Al Faisal/Haupt/Buurman/van Lagen      Black Falcon Mercedes         -1 lap
 6.  Laser/Cerruti/Edwards/Keilwitz         Walkenhorst BMW              -3 laps
 7.  Thiim/Jons/Kaffer/Vanthoor             WRT Audi                     -3 laps
 8.  Primat/Bruck/Schmid/Seefried           HTP Bentley                  -5 laps
 9.  Buncombe/Hoshino/Krumm/Ordonez         RJN Nissan                   -5 laps
10.  Huff/Heyer/Frommenwiler/Krognes        Premio Mercedes              -5 laps