Two hours in to the Nurburgring 24 Hours Porsche have risen to the top, overcoming the quartet of Audis that started the race ahead of them to move into a 1-2.
Even before the lead cars had even departed the more familiar Grand Prix circuit for the Nordschleife the defending champions Manthey Racing had moved into the lead. Marcel Tiemann took the green and yellow liveried car from seventh on the grid to the lead after only six corners. Tiemann held the lead through his eight lap stint before passing the car over to Porsche works driver Marc Lieb.
Four more works drivers are ready to step into the 911 GT3 R Hybrid that held second place after two hours, with Jorg Bergmeister at the wheel as the clock passed 5pm local time.
Behind the leading pair were a trio of Audi R8 LMS.
The Haribo Goldbear stickered car, that started as the best placed Porsche in fifth, had made it's way to second in early exchanges, but had fallen back to sixth by the two hour mark, perhaps disadvantaged by being the first of the Manthey prepared cars to pit, after just seven laps of the 25km track.
At more of a definite disadvantage was the Mamerow Racing entry that started sixth. Like many of the other top Porsches the car, in the hands of Chris Mamerow, moved up after the start, and ran as high as third before they were assessed a two-minute penalty for allegedly ignoring yellow flags out on the track.
The standard 911 GT3 R3 was 37th overall, and fourth in the SP7 class, after 120 minutes, veteran Roland Asch behind the wheel, having taken the car over from Patrick Simon who started the race for the team.
