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Schubert Motorsport were impressive at the BMW M6 GT3's debut at the Nürburgring-Nordschleife (DE), but an accident and a technical defect prevented the team from being rewarded with good results for its strong performance.

After an outstanding qualifying lap by Augusto Farfus (BR), the number 18 car started the 24-hour race from second on the grid. Despite the chaotic weather, the car was in the lead at one point, but engine damage forced Jörg Müller (DE) to stop the BMW M6 GT3 on the 17th lap. The team worked hard throughout the night to get the car back on the track. It managed this in the early hours, and Farfus, Müller and their team-mates Jesse Krohn (FI) and Marco Wittmann (DE) at least made it to the finish line on Sunday – albeit with a large deficit.

The number 100 BMW M6 GT3 driven by John Edwards (US), Jens Klingmann (DE), Lucas Luhr (DE) and Martin Tomczyk (DE) made it through the night without any problems and battled for a place on the podium. But shortly after 9 a.m. CEST, Luhr was hit by another car through no fault of his own, crashed into the barriers and was forced to retire from the race. This meant that, despite good lap times, Schubert Motorsport was left without any tangible success.

Now its focus is on next weekend when the BMW Motorsport Juniors Krohn and Louis Delétraz (CH) will compete in the ADAC GT Masters at the Lausitzring (DE).

Quotes from the race:

Torsten Schubert (Team Principal): "It is a real shame that we weren't able to race for the win. We had the necessary speed to be up there at the front, but unfortunately, as in previous years, we didn't have that little bit of luck needed. There was nothing that we could do about the accident with car number 100 or the technical defect on car number 18. I feel really sorry for the guys in the team, who work hard year after year and don't reap the rewards they deserve. But that's motorsport. We will go on the attack again next year and try to achieve a top result with the BMW M6 GT3."

Lucas Luhr (Schubert Motorsport, number 100 BMW M6 GT3, DNF): “I am a positive person, so I will take the positives from this race. The brand-new BMW M6 GT3 proved its potential and showed that it is competitive on the Nordschleife. We can build on that, looking ahead. The collision was obviously unnecessary. It is a shame that we were unable to convert the strong performance we showed over the course of the race into a good result. The other car came from nowhere and ploughed into me. I had no chance, and it was a big impact.”

Augusto Farfus (Schubert Motorsport, number 18 BMW M6 GT3, 120th place): “It obviously hurt to be denied any chance of a good result relatively early in the race. We were leading at the time of the engine problem, and had very good speed. We still had that pace after the overnight repairs. I would like to pay a big compliment to the Schubert Motorsport team. They worked hard all night to get our car back out onto the track. For me, they are the real heroes.”