After losing out on the NLS 8 victory late on and sitting out the NLS 9 round, Falken Motorsports have won NLS 10. Dorian Boccolacci and Nico Menzel in the No.4 Porsche won the race, ahead of the sister No.3, which was driven by Joel Sturm and by Menzel, who finished both first and second in the race.
The 10th and final race of the 2025 Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie got underway today at noon local time (10am GMT) with the No.9 Haupt Racing Team (HRT) Ford Mustang leading a Ford front row lockout on the grid.
In typical Nürburgring fashion, it was drizzling in places making the track greasy. The third placed overall No.22 Audi GT3 (running in the alternative fuels class) found this out the hard way, spinning on the back straight of the Grand Prix track on the formation lap. The car spun off and tagged the wall on the inside but going moving again without too much damage.
A few cars lower down in the field chose to come in and change tyres, but none of the contenders did. So when we went green it was a good getaway for the pole sitting No.9 Ford, but that can’t be said for the sister No.6.
Frank Stippler dropped back behind both of the No.3 and No.4 Falken Porsches, which both had brilliant starts from fifth and seventh respectively. In these tricky conditions, Stippler struggled to get the power down in his Mustang and at one stage even went three wide with a pair of Porsche Cup cars.
Behind them, the No.22 and No.8 Audis that started third and fourth also dropped down the order slightly.
As the leaders progressed around the Nordschlife for the first time at full speed, they found that it was getting wetter and wetter. The No.4 Porsche had taken the lead, as driver Dorian Boccolacci almost crawled around the back section of the track.
The aforementioned alternative fuels Audi also had another moment, stranded in the middle of the track after a collision. This lap 1 crash was the end of their race.
The No.4 Porsche had an issue, clipping the back of the No.9 Ford, which loosened the front bumper, where it eventually came off the car over a high kerb.
That left the No.3 car to lead, with the No.948 Porsche Cup car on his tail in second. The pole sitting Ford was third, before a gaggle of Cup 2 cars, and then finally came the No.6 Ford of Stippler in seventh.
Tobias Müller in the No.948 seemed to have much more grip than the Falken SP9 car, and he squeezed his way by into the overall lead of the race on lap 2.
He led the way at the end of lap 2, from the No.3. The No.6 and No.9 Fords were working their way back up the order, in third and fourth. Then came a group of five more Cup 2s and SP9s, meaning the top 11 cars were split by 8.7 seconds at the end of the second lap of racing.
Stippler in the No.6 really found his pace on lap 3, working his way by the Porsche SP9 and Cup 2, to take the lead of the race. The No.3 of Menzel also got past the No.948, and from there the two lead SP9 cars pulled away in the battle for the lead.
The two began to battle, and by the end of the next lap it was the Porsche that headed the field, but only by half a second. Stippler hustled the Porsche around the entire lap, with the No.9 Ford also joining in the battle. When they completed lap 5, Menzel led by two tenths of a second, with Scherer another 2 tenths back. The top three were covered by less than half a second after 45 minutes of racing.
The No.9 Ford (racing under the No.65) at the N24 this year | Credit: Luna Maas
It was on the Grand Prix loop where Stippler made the move for the lead, and it stuck. The No.3 dropped to second, with the other Ford of Fabio Scherer looking feisty behind. He briefly did take second place, but Menzel fought back to hold on.
Around the Nordschlife, the rain got heavier and Menzel’s Porsche came alive. He re-took the lead and immediately flew away from the Fords behind.
He wouldn’t lead at the end of the lap though, as Falken pulled the car into the pits with three hours and five minutes remaining. Joel Sturm hopped in the Porsche, as Menzel got out to ready himself for his stint in the No.4 car, as he was competing in both this weekend.
Scherer remained behind his teammate – as the Fords now led 1-2 – but fell about five seconds back after a small mistake in sector three of the previous lap.
The two Mustangs pit together, two laps after the Porsche, alongside the No.8 Audi.
Conditions towards the end of the Nordschlife looked extremely treacherous, as on-board cameras showed the No.948 Porsche creeping around the circuit, the car twitching from left to right as the driver tried to find any form of grip.
That No.948 actually led overall again, due to the fact that the Porsche Cup cars can usually run a lap or two longer than the SP9s. Müller did pit at the next opportunity though, putting the No.4 into the lead after its earlier issues. They still needed to pit though, so the net leader was the sister No.3, still ahead of the No.6 and No.9 Fords.
The No.4 did eventually pit, giving the lead back to the No.3, and it should have been the Fords to come through into second and third, but they both pit again for a set of wet tyres. That left the No.3 as the only leader on slick tyres, so the next couple of laps would be crucial for the outcome of the race.
Menzel limped his way around on slicks, and did come into the pits for wets. The No.4 then took over the lead, as it was the first of the cars to take the grooved tyres. The pair of Fords were over a minute behind Menzel with two hours and 20 minutes to go.
Sturm in the No.3 did come out behind the Fords, but within two laps had caught and passed both of them. The two Falken Porsche were absolutely loving these wet conditions. Sturm pulled out about 15 seconds over Stippler by the halfway point, while the lead gap was at 75 seconds.
Sturm was absolutely flying, taking 8 seconds out of his teammate on lap 12, bringing the gap closer and closer between the two Falken cars. Visibility was worsening though, as the Grand Prix track became covered in the low hanging fog.
From there the lead gap ebbed and flowed around 65-75 seconds, with the gap to the Fords behind growing very quickly. On lap 15 the two Porsche were well over 20 seconds quicker than Stippler.
It’s important to note that during the race the rain never really got too heavy, but the low hanging clouds and cold temperatures meant that the asphalt held the moisture, so the track never dried out.
At the end of lap 16, the No.4 pit from the lead along with both Fords. That left the No.4 Porsche out in the lead until they came in on the next lap.
Around the half an hour mark, the No.3 Porsche came in, followed by the sister car the next lap. Both were short stops for tyres, with no track position lost for either car.
On the final lap of the race the No.948 that led the Porsche Cup 2 class found itself off the road, stopping the car on the side of the track in the dying moments of the race. Heartbreak for the Black Falcon crew. The No.921 ended up winning that class.
Not only did they lose the class win, but they lost the overall championship too. The No.187 BMW won that honour after the demise of the No.948.
In the end the No.4 did come home to take victory in NLS 10, ending the season out it started, with a Falken Motorsports 1-2. The winning margin was about 20 seconds, but the two Porsches were a massive six minutes ahead of the No.6 and No.9 Fords who were third and fourth. They had a close fight on the final lap for the last spot on the podium, but the No.6 just edged out the sister car.
That is all she wrote for the NLS in 2025, but be sure to join us back next season for more coverage of the Nürburgring only series, which just might include more of a certain world champion.