From the beginning of the weekend, the GT classes were going to be dominated by Porsche and Ferrari. IN the race, the battles on track that were promised from the closeness of these teams became reality, and gifted some of the best racing of the weekend. A clever move from James Calado saw the #51 AF Corse get ahead of the Porsche GT Team duo and pull away slightly, driving to a comfortable class win.
This race was the first race that the new automated BoP came into play. It had been expected that BoP would play a bigger part in the weekend, but it was the two teams without altered BoP that did better at the Nurburgring. Ford had extra weight on their car, whilst Aston Martin gained the expected advantage with less weight, but both teams were unable to keep up with Ferrari and Porsche teams.
The advantage that Aston Martin Racing saw was on the straights. Ford Chip Ganassi seemed to be faster around the Nurburgring than the Astons, but in a straight line the Astons would pull away slightly, making it very difficult for the Fords to make the pass work. Olivier Pla and Andy Priaulx had to get clever with the traffic to get wheel-to-wheel with the Astons to make the pass happen.
Even though it was not the best weekend for Ford, GT Drivers’ World Endurance Championship leaders Priaulx and Harry Tincknell hold onto their lead by 11 points as the summer break comes. The second-place finish for Richard Lietz and Frédéric Makowiecki sees them climb to second in the GT Drivers’ leaderboard, displacing Jonny Adam, Daniel Serra and Darren Turner (who were unable to finish ahead of either of the Fords) to third in class, four points behind the Porsche duo.
The win from #51 AF Corse sees Ferrari take the lead of the Manufacturers’ Championship from Ford. Both teams are on 135 points, but with a extra win Ferrari take the top spot.