Porsche's fifth win in a row in NLS with a 1-2-3

NLSN24

May 26

winning #16 Porsche — 📷 Luc Warnotte at ADAC 24h Nürburgring Qualifiers Race 2 2025. #16 Scherer Sport PHX Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)

After winning Nürburgring Qualifiers’ race 1 Saturday Laurens Vanthoor and Patric Niederhauser win Sunday’s Race 2 with #16 Scherer Sport PHX Porsche 911 GT3 R ahead of Julien Andlauer - Alessio Picariello with #33 Falken Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 and Kevin Estre - Patric Pilet with #911 Manthey EMA Porsche 911 GT3 R scoring the fifth victory in a row for Porsche in the 2025 ADAC Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie.

📷 Luc Warnotte at ADAC 24h Nürburgring Qualifiers Race 2 2025. From left to right: #16 Scherer Sport PHX Porsche 911 GT3 R (992), #43 Falken Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R (992), #911 Manthey EMA Porsche 911 GT3 R (992).

Top Qualifing

A 30 minutes top qualifying session was scheduled to set the grid for Race 2 of the Qualifiers weekend.

Starting grid Race 2 — 📷 Luc Warnotte at ADAC 24h Nürburgring Qualifiers Race 2 2025. Top Qualifying session ranking during warm up lap.

Fabian Schiller in #14 Mercedes-AMG GT3 was the fastest and did start from pole thanks to a 9:12.919 lap. Patric Niederhauser with #16 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) was second with a 9:13.242 enabling him to start from front row.

Daniel Juncadella in #27 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 and Nico Menzel in #44 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) got their respective cars in row 2 as they qualified in third with a 9:14.271 and fourth with a 9:14.286.

Daan Arrow with #48 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) was fifth with a 9:14.710 and Adam Christodoulou with #17 Mercedes-AMG GT3 was sixth with a 9:17.253 qualifying them in row three.

The “Grello” #911 Porsche 911 GT3 R was not able to participate to the session as they left the pit to late. As a consequence, they did start 17th in the back of the first start grid.

📷 Luc Warnotte at ADAC 24h Nürburgring Qualifiers Race 2 2025. Estre start 17th of Race 2 with #911 “Grello”.

A turbulent first half with Lamborghini in the lead

Right at the start, Estre (#911 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)) comes to the box for the team to change from rain tires to slicks as well as the #45 Ferrari 296 GT3.

Luca Stolz (#14 Mercedes-AMG GT3) bends into the Nordschleife as the leader followed by Patric Niederhauser in the #16 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992). The two Falken Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) follow with Nico Menzel (#44) ahead of Picariello (#33) follow who jumped from P7 on the grid to fourth.

At the end of the first lap, leading #16 Niederhauser comes to the box followed by #14 Stolz to change from rain tires to slicks. Picariello '(#33) and Menzel (#44) do the same. Christodoulou with #17 Mercedes-AMG GT3 takes the lead but not for long as Christian Engelhart with #27 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO take him over and get the lead.

📷 Luc Warnotte at ADAC 24h Nürburgring Qualifiers Race 2 2025. #27 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO did hold the lead during a good part of the first half.

At the end of his stint, #27 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 Christian Engelhart said: "That was an exciting opening phase. A big compliment to the team. We were still discussing which tires to use on the starting grid. In the end, the team decided to start with slicks. That was absolutely the right decision. When you're leading, you can get through traffic much better. Now we have the best starting position."

During lap 3, Niederhauser (#16 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)) and the two Falken-Porsche take the #14 Mercedes-AMG GT3 over but a little further, Niederhauser had to slow down for a slower vehicle and both Falken Porsches take the opportunity to pass him. Not for long for Menzel with #44 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) as he sustained a puncture while accelerating out of the Adenauer Forst area on the curb and had to come back slowly to pit..

📷 Luc Warnotte at ADAC 24h Nürburgring Qualifiers Race 2 2025. Patric Pilet during his Race 2 stint with #911 Porsche 911 GT3 R.

After 1 hour 20 minutes, #911, #14 and #33 drive to pit:

Kevin Estre handed over the “Grello” to Patrick Pilet. He reported on the first phase of the race: "Unfortunately, we didn't have the right tires on from the start. We suspected it was going to start raining, but after the formation lap, it stayed dry, and I picked up slicks in the pits. Afterwards, there were still a few corners that were wet – Hatzenbach, Fuchsröhrer, Laudakurve, and Bergwerk. You had to be a bit patient, but things got better and better. The track now has a bit less grip than yesterday in qualifying for Race 1. It's hard to say where we really stand, but I think we're up there with the front runners."

Luca Stolz gave the wheel of #14 to Maxime Martin and said: "That was fun. It was difficult to choose the right tire. The GP track still looked wet, but the Nordschleife was dry. Slicks would certainly have been the right choice. Now let's see where we stand strategically."

Andlauer took over from Picariello (#33 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)) who said: "The conditions at the start were mixed – the track was still a bit damp. With the exception of one car, almost all of us started on rain tires – including us. After one lap, we realized it was getting too hard for the tires and came into the pits. We had some great battles on the dry track. Let's see where we end up."

At mid-race, the #27 Mapelli / Juncadella / Engelhart (Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2) leads ahead of the #16 Niederhauser / Vanthoor (Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)) and the #911 Estre / Pilet (Porsche 911 GT3 R (992))

📷 Luc Warnotte at ADAC 24h Nürburgring Qualifiers Race 2 2025. First sting battle between Niederhauser (#16 Scherer Sport PHX #33 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)) and Picariello (#33 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)).

Vanthoor leads at mid-race

After 15 minutes in the third hour, Vanthoor takes over from Niederhauser in #16 Scherer Sport PHX Porsche 911 GT3 R in P2. Half hour later, he takes the lead from the #27 Lamborghini until the end except for asynchronous pitting with competition.

In the meantime, Maxime Martin (#14 Mercedes-AMG GT3) was in a tough duel with Julien Andlauer (#33 Andlauer Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)), lost his position in the “Karousel“ being slowed down by another car and takes his position back a bit later.

Falken Porsche #33 and Mercedes-AMG GetSpeed #14 — 📷 Luc Warnotte at ADAC 24h Nürburgring Qualifiers Race 2 2025. Tough but fair duel between Julien Andlauer (#33 Andlauer Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)) and Maxime Martin (#14 Mercedes-AMG GT3).

After his stint, Maxime Martin said: "I had a lot of fun with Julian Andlauer in the battle for the lead. It was so close that we even had a little contact at one point – but nothing bad happened because we always gave each other space. He passed me when I got stuck in traffic on the Karussell, and then I passed him in traffic as well: Each of us is trying to win. It's just important to remain fair. There's no reason to be a bad guy."

After the Mercedes-AMG Team GetSpeed #14 had pitted, they were handed a time penalty of 33 seconds for not completing the minimum pit lane stop time.

At the end of the third hour, Vanthoor (#16Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)) is leading the field ahead of Juncadella (#27 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2), Estre (#911 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)), Picariello (#33 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)) and Schiller (#14 Mercedes-AMG GT3).

📷 Luc Warnotte at ADAC 24h Nürburgring Qualifiers Race 2 2025. Laurens Vanthoor in #16 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)

#48 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) Gabriele Piana said: "Even though there weren't that many cars at the start, I had a lot of traffic. I think there are more inexperienced drivers than usual at the NLS. The traffic is a bit more difficult to manage. We're still learning with the GT3."

At 5:04 PM, Vanthoor (#16 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)) crossed the line and secured his team's second win of the weekend.

25.392 seconds after, Picariello (#33 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)) secured second place for Falken Motorsport and, a further 30.883 seconds behind, Estre with (#911 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)) took the final podium spot after Saturday's second place.

1:53.692 minutes after, Fabian Schiller (#14 Mercedes-AMG GT3) finished fourth, making them the best non-Porsche team.

📷 Luc Warnotte at ADAC 24h Nürburgring Qualifiers Race 2 2025. #911 Porsche 911 GT3 R, #14 Mercedes-AMG GT3

#16 Porsche 911 GT3 R driver Laurens Vanthoor: "That was a perfect weekend. The car was very good. The last lap was exciting again. But everything worked out great."

#911 Porsche 911 GT3 R Kevin Estre: "I'm not 100 percent satisfied. Of course, I wanted the win. But that's just the way it is. We drove a good race. The others were a bit faster and had a different strategy. It wasn't easy to know where we stood. We didn't make any mistakes, and the car performed well."

#33 Porsche 911 GT3 R Alessio Picariello: "It was a difficult race, and after the first two laps, I wouldn't have expected to finish on the podium. We had to pit very early, which isn't usually ideal for strategy here. But we had good pace in the dry and didn't make any mistakes. A very good result for the team."

Race 2 SP9 Ranking (top 11 overall)