WTCR Nurburgring Nordschleife races cancelled over Goodyear tyre failures

The two races, due to run on Saturday morning ahead of the Nurburgring 24 Hours, were officially canned shortly before the first was to begin. The decision follows a number of tyre failures during the two free practice sessions on Thursday and qualifying on Friday.

The stewards decision read: “Since the beginning of round two in Nurburgring, several problems happened with the tyres on different cars during free practice and qualifying sessions.

“After a meeting held on Saturday 28 May at 08.00am with Goodyear management, FIA officials and [promoter] Discovery representatives, it has been stated by Goodyear that the safety of the tyres cannot be guaranteed and confirmed by a Goodyear official statement received on 28 May at 09.45am.”

Race one was due to start at 10am.

“Therefore the stewards have decided to stop the competition due to serious safety reasons,” the statement concluded.

Before qualifying, the stewards had accepted Goodyear’s request to supply two extra new tyres to each of the series’ 17 entries from “an additional batch from a different build period”, while teams were given an extra 15-minute test session, which took place directly before qualifying.

But during qualifying Cyan Racing’s Yvan Muller suffered another tyre failure on his first lap, following punctures in both free practice sessions. His second qualifying run left him 10th, which would have put him on pole position for the partially reversed-grid second race – although he quickly cast doubt on whether he would compete.

His Lynk & Co team-mates Santi Urrutia and Yann Ehrlacher qualified third and fourth behind the two Audis of Mehdi Bennani and Gilles Magnus, but only completed a single lap each because of the team’s safety fears over the tyres.