One of the images of the 50th edition of the 24 Hours of Nürburgring was, without a doubt, the touch between the Vanthoor brothers. While the first phase of the race was still underway, the #1 Porsche of Laurens Vanthoor and the #15 Audi of Dries – ultimately the winner – touched in the high-speed section before the ‘Hohenrain’ chicane. He had barely played 23 laps, but Porsche #1 said goodbye to any option to revalidate its victoryevery time Laurens Vanthoor’s GT3 was catapulted out to impact violently against the barriers.
A dramatic moment within the Vanthoor familyas Laurens has shown with his statements: «Emotions took over me and my brain stopped working. What happened was a nightmare. I know I’m smarter, I know you shouldn’t take so much risk in a 24 hour race. It’s painful to open up like this in public, but the reason behind it is that I was competing with my brother. I got carried away by my emotions and the result was disastrous. Crashing into my brother was a black day in my career.».
«We’ve been competing with each other since we were kids. We have never lifted our foot or stepped back in front of each other on court, even if that has meant having more than one contact. Unfortunately, this competition took the lead yesterday and it did not end well. I’m so sorry, it wasn’t professional. I don’t have any kind of grudge against Dries. On the contrary, I am a very proud brother. In the future we will support each other and not fight each other like this. Today was a black day in my career, but that’s the way things work,” he added. Laurens Vanthoor.
The accident of Porsche #1 was the beginning of a series of catastrophic misfortunes for the Stuttgart brand, in a black edition for the firm. sebastian golzresponsible for the brand’s GT3 project, considers it this way: «We had bad luck on Saturday and Sunday. We lost up to six cars due to accidents, most of which weren’t even at-fault collisions. We witnessed how strong our ‘customer teams’ and our cars in the race could be. This makes it all the more disappointing that we were unable to achieve a decent result».
After the disappointment caused by the accident with his brother Dries at the 24 Hours of Nürburgring, Laurens is obliged to focus on his DTM program with the SSR Performance team. Project that has started off on the right foot, as the eldest of the Vanthoor has managed to score points in the four races that have been held to date this season. Nevertheless, Laurens Vanthoor needs to step up to fight for podium finishes and move up the championship standings.
Photos: 24 Hours of Nurburgring