For the third consecutive race Black Falcon celebrated victory in VLN with the #6 Black Falcon Team AutoArena Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3. Patrick Assenheimer and Manuel Metzger took the lead of the 42. RCM DMV Grenzlandrennen after Kévin Estre in the #911 Manthey Racing Porsche 991.2 GT3R crashed in the rain and never looked back.

GALLERY | NOTEBOOK | INTERVIEW PATRICK ASSENHEIMER | INTERVIEW MANUEL METZGER

With Metzger doubling down on Assenheimer’s excellent opening double stint in which he brought the AMG up to second when the halfway point arrived, the win was only challenged by the weather conditions. The heavy rain, despite some close calls, couldn’t stop Assenheimer and Metzger from giving Black Falcon the hattrick with an advantage of well over 2 minutes to second-placed Car Collection.

Kévin Estre was the star of the first two hours, jumping from fourth on the grid to challenge pole sitter Frank Stippler in the #5 Phoenix Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 for the lead through the first corners. The Frenchman took first place on the second lap after a short but fierce duel with Audi ace Stippler and left the field behind in the hours that followed. No one had an answer to Estre, who was leading by over 40 second at halftime. The Porsche team’s march came to an unfortunate halt shortly thereafter when Estre crashed at Mutkurve just when the rain picked up again.

Although Stippler lost several places during his stint, the Phoenix Audi remained a firm contender for the win with the quick Steve Jans and ever-improving junior racer Vincent Kolb slated to bring the car to the finish. Running in third place with an hour to go, however, the car refused to restart after the final pitstop. The electronic issue rang in the end of the race for the Ernest Moser-led squad.

Car Collection Motorsport finished second with the #32 Audi R8 LMS GT3 driven by Frank Stippler — on double duty — and Pierre Kaffer. The German duo moved up through the field having started from eighth, bringing the dark red R8 to second at the finish.

Third place went to the #2 GetSpeed Performance Mercedes-AMG GT3 crew of Philip Ellis and Dominik Baumann. Despite making the mistake of going for rain tyres on the drying track for their second stint, Ellis and Baumann recovered to race the Vodaphone-sponsored AMG to the final step on the podium.