EIGHT O'CLOCK

Just seven hours to go at the Nurburgring with the #1 Porsche in first place. The Manthey Racing Porsche 911 GT3 RSR of Timo Bernhard/Marc Lieb/Romain Dumas/Marcel Tiemann now has a three-lap advantage after early misfortune. A semi-works car with a top squad of drivers they are a formidable combination, with sufficient time in hand to think of going into cruise mode to the finish.
The #23 Manthey Racing Porsche of Hahne/Haarmann/Krumbach/Kaffer is in second place. Making it a potential all-Porsche podium is the Porsche 997 of Sabine Schmitz/Klaus Abbelen/Dr Edgar Althoff in third.
08:15: The #7 Aston Martin is leading the class in 18th place, with #8 back in 21st, 2mins 50secs adrift on our stopwatch, ably operated by Matthew's dad.
08:25: The green Aston Martin called Kermit to the pits. Matthew Marsh is in hot pursuit as we wait for the pitstop sequence to unwind.