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Australian GT front-runner Kelvin van der Linde and 2015 champion Christopher Mies have won the Nurburgring 24 Hours in a thrilling finish.
Driving the #29 Land Motorsport R8 with Conor de Phillippi and Markus Winkelhock, van der Linde reclaimed the lead on the final lap of the Nordschleife to take a memorable victory.
The race had looked lost for the long-time leaders when an electrical fault caused a crawl back to the pits with an hour remaining.
Van der Linde resumed in third after a reset of the R8, before switching to wet tyres at his final pit stop as the leading #9 WRT Audi and second-placed #98 ROWE Racing BMW took slicks.
Fortuitously, the rain came, with the South African moving back into first position on the final lap, while the #98 BMW also demoted the #9 Audi.
“I actually went initially a bit too early on the rain tyres,” said van der Linde.
“I had to save them in the beginning while the track was still dry, so that was obviously a key feature.
“Then obviously during the traffic I had to really watch out because they could have made a mistake on the slick tyre, but in the end it worked out.
“I knew I was in the fight for the win. I knew he (#98 Nicky Catsburg) was not far behind the other Audi (#9 Rene Rast) and the team just said on the radio ‘keep pushing, keep pushing’, so that’s what I did.”
The 20-year-old, who replaced Mies at the Audi squad this year, would have been driving the team’s sister #74 entry in the race which was ultimately won by car #75 of Jaxon Evans and Tim Miles.
Van der Linde took his first two Australian GT race wins and first round win at Albert Park in March.
He will next be in action for Jamec Pem at the Watpac Townsville 400 for Round 4 of the Australian GT Championship on July 7-9.
VIDEO: Celebratory doughnuts
VIDEO: Final moments of the Nurburgring 24 Hours
