The ADAC GT Masters contingent came away empty-handed from this year's Le Mans 24-hour race. Five contestants from the 'Super Sports Car League' travelled full of hope and expectation to the endurance spectacular in north-west France: the winning duo at the Sachsenring, Kristian Poulsen and Christoffer Nygaard, plus Maxime Martin, Abdulaziz Al Faisal and Nicolas Armindo.

The surprise winners of last weekend, Poulsen and Nygaard, were the first to suffer a setback: their Aston Martin Vantage entered by Young Driver AMR in association with Aston Martin Racing was forced to retire on Saturday evening after being involved in a collision. A similar fate befell Abdulaziz Al Faisal, who has just taken over the cockpit of the Schubert Motorsport BMW Z4 GT3. Driving a Porsche 911, the Arabian prince also had to retire after an accident.

Maxime Martin, winner of the first ADAC GT Masters race of the 2012 season, was this time behind the wheel of a Le Mans prototype. For the first third of the race, he was in with a real chance of winning the LMP2 class, but punctures and electronics problems shortly after midnight scuppered the Belgian's chances, and he eventually crossed the line back in P7. FROGREEN CO2 neutral driver Nicolas Armindo had triumph cruelly snatched away late on in the race. The Frenchman, driving a Porsche for a French team, was leading in his class in the closing stage of the race, but a puncture 20 minutes from the end cost him certain victory and consigned him to the runner-up spot on the podium.

A car with genuine winning pedigree from the ADAC GT Masters entertained the 240,000 spectators on Saturday morning. Young Driver AMR entered the Sachsenring winner in a dedicated Aston Martin race that was staged on the 13.6 km circuit at Le Mans as part of the supporting programme. Team GT3 Kasko driver Marco Seefried finished as runner-up in a GT1 Aston Martin, also setting the fastest race lap.