911 GT3

Make
Porsche
Segment
Coupe

Should anyone be surprised? Hardly, as it was the Germans who once again dominated this year's 24 Hours of Nurburgring. Although Aston Martin and Lexus were hoping to give the German teams some competition, in the end Porsche and BMW took first and second place, respectively. After BMW took top honors in 2010's grueling endurance race, Porsche came back fighting this year with the Manthey Racing Porsche 997 GT3 RSR.

Behind the wheel were Porsche drivers Marc Lieb, Timo Bernhard, Romain Dumas, and Lucas Luhr. 30 seconds after the Porsche crossed the finish line, the BMW Motorsport M3 GT came blazing through in second place, driven by Jorg Muller, Alzen Uwe, Augusto Farfus, and Pedro Lamy. In third place was the Audi R8 LMS driven by Marc Basseng, Marcel Fassler, Frank Stippler, and Andrea Piccini. Audi also took home fourth and fifth place while the first Mercedes-Benz team came in sixth.

Although it wasn't quite as exciting as Le Mans a couple of weeks ago, this year's Nurburgring still had its moments such as when the Porsche 911 GT3 R Hybrid was in the lead, but lost it due to a destroyed gearbox caused by a collision. An Audi R8 GT even smashed into a wall just a few hours after the race began, eliminating it from the race. Photos courtesy of adac.24h-rennen.de