The battle for the win at the 2025 Nurburgring 24 Hours played out in dramatic circumstances, with a post-race penalty for a crash that had left a car on its roof changing the winner of the event.
The #911 Manthey Porsche crew of Kevin Estre, Ayhancan Guven and Thomas Preining was more or less in control for most of the race, but found itself under pressure from the #98 ROWE BMW of Kelvin van der Linde, Augusto Farfus, Jesse Krohn and Raffaele Marciello as the race entered its closing stretch.
As Estre, who had finished second in the Le Mans 24 Hours last weekend, navigated traffic under pressure from Marciello, he came up on the Dorr Motorsport Aston Martin of Rolf Scheibner - and tried to squeeze by on the right side, only to nudge Scheibner sideways as the latter stuck to his line.
What a crash while fighting for P1! Driver is ok. #24hNBR pic.twitter.com/BoiGyenPCu
— Nürburgring (@nuerburgring) June 22, 2025
The Aston Martin went into the barrier and tipped over onto its roof after the contact, with Marciello taking evasive action right behind and hopping the kerb in his BMW.
A long wait for a decision followed, seemingly as the stewards waited for Estre to end his stint and argue his case.
"There is not a lot to say. For me it's pretty clear," insisted Marciello during that wait. "We got a penalty before, 30 seconds, for something much smaller.
"I expect a big penalty for the Porsche. But it's not in our hands."
The penalty Marciello referred to - actually 32 seconds - had been issued for van der Linde hitting the #959 Sorg Rennsport Porsche Cayman GT4 car of Peter Cate, who was turned in to the barriers, though the sanction was eventually rescinded.
That helped the BMW erode what was a two-minute lead for the Manthey Porsche and put Estre under pressure.
Airborne in the battle for P1 🤯🤯🤯 #24hNBR #24hNBR2025 pic.twitter.com/xsnGdrlBeS
— ADAC RAVENOL 24h Nürburgring (@24hNBR) June 22, 2025
A "big penalty" did follow, as Marciello expected, specifically 1 minute and 40 seconds, as Estre was deemed to have caused the collision. But Manthey protested this, so did not serve it in-race - meaning the Porsche versus BMW battle played out in the closing stages under the spectre of the possible sanction.
The ROWE car looked like it might make the whole thing moot when Farfus overtook Guven, but a race interruption that was well-timed for Manthey put its car back ahead, and it held on to come home first on-the-road.
However, its protest was quickly confirmed as being dismissed, handing the win to the BMW.
It is BMW's first win at the event since 2020, and a first-ever for Marciello and Krohn.
Van der Linde had won the Nurburgring 24 Hours twice before, albeit as an Audi driver, while Farfus already had a BMW win here but one that dated all the way back to 2010.
Porsche had to be content with locking out the podium.
The penalised #911 Manthey was second, by virtue of being the only other car on the lead lap, while the Dinamic Porsche of Bastian Buus, Matteo Cairoli, Loek Hartog and Joel Sturm took third.
