Strong performance, unfortunate outcome: Double retirement for Falken Motorsports at the 24h Nürburgring

The 53rd edition of the ADAC RAVENOL 24-hour race at the Nürburgring was an event full of emotions – with a promising start for Falken Motorsports, an unprecedented race interruption, and a premature end for both Porsche 911 GT3 R.

Falken already demonstrated its potential impressively in qualifying: with a strong lap time of 8:14.279 minutes, the driver quartet of Julien Andlauer, Nico Menzel, Sven Müller, and Alessio Picariello put the #33 Porsche 911 GT3 R in fourth place on the grid – an excellent starting position for the endurance classic on the Nordschleife. The sister car, the #44 Porsche 911 GT3 R, driven by Dorian Boccolacci, Tim Heinemann, Dennis Marschall, and Morris Schuring, completed the top result with 11th place on the grid.

The start went according to plan and looked promising: the #33 quickly worked its way up to second place, while the #44 was in tenth. However, after just an hour and a half, the race was interrupted due to a power failure – a first in the history of the race. A defective cooling system in the pit building had overheated and shut down central systems. After a thorough check of the power supply, the fault was rectified and the race resumed after more than two hours.

The decisive turning point came in the evening: Julien Andlauer, who was in a commanding second place at the time, collided with a car that had spun after the first corner and was blocking the racing line. It was impossible to avoid the collision – the #33 was severely damaged in the accident and had to retire from the race.

The #44 car remained consistently in the top 10 and put in a strong performance throughout the night. But here too, the effort was not rewarded: a drive train failure on Sunday morning meant that the second teal-and-blue Falken Porsche also had to retire early. Despite the unfortunate outcome, Falken Motorsports can look back with pride on the strong performance and commitment of the entire team.

Falken also made a strong impression away from the racetrack: the Japanese tire brand welcomed 300 dealers from the most important European markets to an exclusive event. Falken was also up close and personal for the more than 280,000 fans - a new visitor record - with the merchandise stand in the ring°boulevard and paddock, as well as the spectacular drift show, generating excitement and filling the stands.