Talking points: Porsche wins truncated Nürburgring 24 Hours Car News

The 24 Hours of the Nürburgring? Not quite this year. Specifically, the 2021 edition is set to be renamed 10 Hours of the Nürburgring after heavy fog resulted in a 2pm shutdown until last Saturday night and Sunday morning.

Only 59 laps were completed, making it the shortest N24 in history – although what turned into a GT sprint race when the peloton was finally released once again provided plenty of action. , controversy and an all-too-familiar winning team.

Porsche obtains bragging rights in Germany

The Nordschleife classic may not have the global profile and cachet of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, but it’s no surprise that racing matters a lot in Germany, especially for the ‘big four’: Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Porsche.

This year, and for the 13th time, it was Porsche’s turn to seize the bragging rights by winning at The Green Hell, with the factory-backed Manthey team taking their seventh victory in N24 – a first for the drivers Kévin Estre, Michael Christensen and Matteo Cairoli.

Their striking lime-green 911 GT3 R finished less than nine seconds ahead of last year’s winning team Rowe Racing’s # 98 BMW M6 GT3.

The team’s No.1 car, which took pole position and initially led the race, was one of the cars to be knocked out in the big shunts, with Maro Engel crashing heavily at Tiergarten as he tried to make your way through traffic.

Mercedes driver becomes “bad guy”

You may have heard of the Formula 1 team formerly known as Racing Point who drove a ‘pink Mercedes’ last year. The term is literal in GT racing, thanks to the BWT-sponsored Mercedes-AMG GT3 Getspeed, which completed a podium bringing together three of the big four German automakers.

But driver Raffaele Marciello became the “bad guy” of the race, despite securing third place with a brave stint by Falken Motorsport’s # 44 Porsche on the penultimate lap. Earlier, Marciello had taken off from Phoenix Racing’s Audi R8 LMS GT3 (driven by Michele Beretta) to end a heated scuffle for position. The incident led to a new spat on social media, with Marciello remaining defiant in the face of his actions.

Honda and Hyundai win in WTCR

At least the weather behaved well on Saturday morning, as a pair of races held in cloudy but dry conditions kicked off the 2021 Touring Car World Cup delayed by the pandemic .

Frenchman Jean-Karl Vernay quickly took a points lead with a victory in race two on his debut for the Hyundai team led by Engstler, giving the new Elantra N TCR the best possible start as it succeeds the i30 N hatchback.

But under the gaze of Hyundai’s board members, Team Engstler made a controversial decision (the opening weekend of the WTCR season, remember) to dictate the team’s orders – to the son of the team owner!

Luca Engstler broke into tears of frustration on team radio after he obeyed – although he almost passed Vernay on the final lap – and then showed courage in the face of the media. Difficult lessons for a 21 year old.