A total of four Porsche customer race teams comprised the top 10 finishers at the 2021 Nürburgring 24 Hours held on June 3 to 6 in Nurburg, Germany.
The top 10 Porsche finishers were led by Porsche’s Manthey customer race team, driven by Kevin Estre, Michael Christensen and Matteo Cairoli who ranked first place using the No. 911 Porsche 911 GT3 R. They defeated 120 other entries—99 of which finished the race.
With year’s edition officially called the ADAC Total 24 Hour Race, the annual endurance race for this year experienced bad weather, resulting to a 14-hour red flag session on Saturday evening. Porsche shared that the prior to the red flag, the race already underwent difficult track conditions where Estre showed his skills on a partly-flooded track using the 911 GT3 R.
In a span of four laps, Estre went from 11th spot to being the race leader. It was also Estre handling the wheel that fended off all attacks when the race restarted Sunday that made them bagged this year’s victory by a margin of 8.817 seconds.
Porsche Motorsport Vice President Fritz Enzinger said the Manthey team gave a terrific show in their 911 GT3 R.
“Our customer teams can be very proud of their achievements. Unfortunately, the strong performance was not always rewarded accordingly as numerous vehicles had to retire after becoming entangled in other competitors’ accidents,” he said.
Other teams using Porsche as their weapon of choice also secured good rankings.
Falken Motorsport team in the No. 44 911 GT3 R narrowly missed out on a podium result, after its drivers Sven Muller, Martin Ragginger, Klaus Bachler and Alessio Picariello finished fourth place while its other car (No. 33) sister car clinched ninth place.
Huber Motorsport driven by Stefan Aust, Philipp Neuffer, Nico Menzel and Marco Seefried was in eighth place in the race. “I’m also particularly pleased about Huber Motorsport’s Pro-Am class win,” Enzinger said.
Estre noted this year’s Nürburgring race may have been “unusually short” but it was “extremely intense and exhausting.”
Porsche customer race teams have joined international and national series since 2019 using the 911 GT3 R. Based on the 911 GT3 RS production sports car, the 911 GT3 R officially debuted with an ultra-modern 500 hp, 4.0-liter flat-six engine in January 2019 at the Daytona 24-hour classic.
Photos from Porsche
Also read:
Porsche reveals 7th-gen 911 GT3 and here’s what it's made of
Porsche 911 Turbo S hailed as 2021 World Performance Car
TAG Heuer now Title Sponsor for Porsche Esports Cup
Copyright © Carmudi 2014-2024. All Rights Reserved.
