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Photo: Gruppe C Photography/SRO The BMW M4 GT3 EVO will head into this afternoon’s start of the Nürburgring 24 with a 10 kg weight increase, as the GT3 manufacturer being the hardest hit with a series of pre-race Balance of Performance adjustments by race organizer ADAC. Confirmed on Saturday morning, the defending race-winning car has gone from a minimum weight of 1340 kg to 1350 kg, despite the highest-placed BMW qualifying ninth. By contrast, the Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2, which swept the front row in Top Qualifying 3 and have been deemed to have been favorites on pure pace from multiple rival manufacturers, has only been hit with a 5 kg increase in weight and a 0.5 mm reduction in its air restrictor, going from 50.5 to 50 mm, which Sportscar365 understands equates to roughly 9-10 horsepower. Additionally, the Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo has also been given 5 kg of additional weight, while the Ford Mustang GT3 EVO’s second air restrictor returns to 35 mm, the same si...

Photo: Gruppe C Photography/SRO Kevin Estre said he’s expecting a “much closer” race between multiple manufacturers in this weekend’s Nürburgring 24 but believes top honors could come again come down to the “three or four” teams that typically execute perfect races on the Nordschleife. The Frenchman returns to Manthey Racing’s ‘Grello’ entry, again sharing the No. 911 machine with fellow Porsche factory drivers Ayhancan Guven and Thomas Preining after the trio won last year’s race on the road but were handed a 100-second post-race penalty for an incident that Estre had with a GT4 car in the closing stages of the Eifel endurance classic. The contentious penalty, which was protested by the German squad, was thrown out by race organizers ADAC. “It’s like a decision you make in a fraction of a second together with a decision from someone else, and it goes really fast,” Estre told Sportscar365. “Last...

Source: Sports Car 365

Photo: ADAC ***Lamborghini became the first non-German manufacturer to score overall pole for the Nürburgring 24 since 2022 when Luca Ludwig took his Octane126 Serliana Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 to top qualifying honors. The last non-German car to win the race outright, meanwhile, was in 2023 with Frikadelli Racing’s triumph in a Ferrari 296 GT3, a driver lineup that featured Nicky Catsburg, whose Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 qualified second in the hands of Marco Mapelli. ***It marked the first front-row lockout for a manufacturer since 2023 when Mercedes-AMG swept the front row when Raffaele Marciello took pole in a HRT-run entry ahead of Maro Engel. ***Engel’s No. 80 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG didn’t make it into the Top Qualifying 3 shootout after the German driver suffered a crash at Hatzenbach. “Obviously very disappointing,” he said. “I’m sorry to the team. It’s not the outcome any of us was hoping for. The tire wasn’t f...

Photo: Gruppe C Photography/SRO Porsche factory driver Julien Andlauer says it is “great” that the Nürburgring 24 still allows teams free tire use, believing “you would have much less cars” with a single brand mandated. The N24 is one of the few remaining top-tier sports car events where teams are not restricted to a certain tire brand and across the 13 Porsche 911 GT3 R Evos in the top SP9 class, there are six different companies represented. Andlauer is switching to Dunlops this year as the company is now sponsoring the No. 17 Schnabl-entered Porsche and has enjoyed developing the tires for the race. “I think it’s great to give some freedom like this to different manufacturers but also give the opportunity for the brand to have a bit more of an impact, to be a bit more part of the racing,” he told Sportscar365. “If you look at IMSA, WEC or whatever, they always win. They don’t really have the competition, they just ...

Source: Sports Car 365

Photo: Gruppe C Photography Kelvin van der Linde set the pace for BMW in a wet second qualifying session for the Nürburgring 24. The three-and-a-half hours of Qualifying 2 began with a wet track in daylight after heavy rain and hail shortly before the session got under way. But the circuit did gradually begin to dry out a little and van der Linde was able to clock a 9:19.884 at the wheel of the No. 1 ROWE Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO around midway through the session after darkness had descended. However, another heavy rain shower then prevented any further improvements and left van der Linde’s pacesetting time around a minute slower than the fastest set in the drier Qualifying 1 . Van der Linde’s best effort was four seconds faster than the No. 24 Lionspeed GP Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo of Laurin Heinrich, who clocked a 9:23.827 shortly before the rain returned in the car that had earlier crashed in Q1. Porsches were also third and fourth fastest with the No. 911 Manth...