Nurburgring 24 Hours red-flagged due to fog after crashes

Visibility was getting increasingly worse in several areas on the track. Race control initially allowed drivers and teams to continue, with Code 60 zones set up on the Dottinger Hohe and at the Schwedenkreuz. When the conditions worsened yet further, stopping the race was unavoidable, race control showed the red flag to the field.

“We had individual fog banks and therefore put some areas under Code 60,” said race director Walter Hornung. “But that was almost a third of the way down the track and caused the tyres to cool down too much in the fast cars, and you can't race with cold tyres.”

Right from the first hour, the race had developed into a ‘survival of the fittest’. Heavy rain flooded large parts of the Nurburgring-Nordschleife layout, making for extremely difficult driving conditions.

The downpour started after around 45 minutes, initially in the Aremberg area, and took the field – most of whom were driving on slicks – completely by surprise. The result was aquaplaning and numerous accidents, the likes of which we last saw in the 2016 edition of the race.

After that, heavy rain continued to fall over the entire track, causing vehicles to spin in other places as well. Among others, at this point TV expert Dirk Adorf said on the NITRO microphone: “As a racing driver, I would say it’s already critical.”

The neutralised race is currently led by the HRT-Mercedes #4 of Adam Christodoulou, Maro Engel, Manuel Metzger and Luca Stolz.

It is the ninth time that the race had to be interrupted and the fifth time since 2013.