American De Phillippi, Audi win Nurburgring 24

Californian Connor De Phillippi became only the second-ever American driver to win the Nürburgring 24 Hours, just one of many headlines after an astonishing finish to the 45th edition of the race. In the end, Audi Sport Team Land's No.29 Audi R8 LMS GT3 of De Phillippi, Markus Winkelhock, Kelvin van der Linde and Chris Mies won the race in dramatic fashion by 29 seconds with the rain coming down in the final hour.

The winning crew – which led 126 of the 158 racing laps of the gruelling Nürburging Nordschleife as part of a 150-plus field of GT and touring cars – looked set to cruise to victory, before a late issue saw their lead of over a minute vanish in the final two hours and drop them to third.

• Results

"It was a roller-coaster of emotions, a real sprint race throughout," de Phillippi told RACER, before explaining after the race that the team noticed something strange on the telemetry shortly before its costly hiccup.

The team's factory-supported Audi R8 suffered a glitch which caused the car (then driven by South African van der Linde) to slow after leaving the pit lane for what should have been its penultimate stop. The team was forced to pit the car again straight away to reset a sensor and get it to the finish.

But it wasn't over, despite the Land crew initially assuming that what should have been a dominant win had slipped through its fingers. The issue promoted the No.9 Belgian Audi Sport Team WRT Audi, which took over the reins at the front going into the final hour, with BMW's highest-placed factory-backed M6 GT3 – the No.98 from ROWE Racing – slotting in second. But the rain would come down suddenly, after 23.5 hours of dry running.

The change in weather prompted some of the field to change to wet tires, but crucially, the WRT Audi and ROWE Racing BMW pitted before the heaviest rain came and stayed on slicks. The delayed Land car came in after the two leaders, and during a fumbled fuel stop, decided to gamble and take wets as a final roll of the dice, with the rain intensifying.

Van der Linde then proceeded to fight his way back into the lead while the majority of the field were forced to crawl around the circuit in the flood-like conditions towards the end of the lap.

WRT and ROWE pitted a lap later to change to wets, but it was too late, and the Land Audi stormed to the lead at the start of the final lap, winning the race in front of a crowd of the 205,000 stunned fans trackside. Nick Catsburg in the ROWE BMW came home second after passing WRT's Rene Rast at Adenau Forst on the final tour.

"After so long at the front with the car running so well of course there was a fair amount of tension getting the car back to the pits, and when we got there a couple o small mistakes made thing look a lot worse than they were," van der Linde explained to RACER after the race.

"Then the real rain came and with nothing to lose the team made the call for wets.

Finishing just shy of the podium was the No.42 BMW Team Schnitzer M6 GT3 despite Marco Wittmann having an off in the rain, ahead of the defending champions in the no.1 Black Falcon Mercedes AMG GT3 who had a quiet race, unable to match the pace off the BMWs and Audis up front.

It was a real race of attrition, with many of the favorites falling by the wayside, including the sister WRT and Land Audis, as well as the second of the Schnitzer BMWs, which featured 2017 Sebring 12 Hours winner Alex Lynn in its lineup. Manthey Racing and Falken Motorsports – which represented Porsche in the SP9 class for GT3 runners – also failed to finish.

The pole-sitting #704 Traum Motorsport Glickenhaus SCG003C also fell victim to the challenges of the 'Ring, American driver Jeff Westphal's efforts to score an unlikely pole and lead most of the first hour coming to nothing when the car crashed out on Sunday morning. The sister #702 SCG003C did finish however, winning the SPX class, much to the delight of Glickenhaus owner Jim Glickenhaus.