Spa 24 Hours: WRT leads into the final three hours

The #1 Audi Sport Team WRT of Rene Rast, Nico Muller and Robin Frijns leads the Spa 24 Hours but almost six hours of the race was lost because of a red flag for worsening weather conditions.

Just before 6am, the rain that has played a big part in the race so far was deemed to heavy to safely continue. After 5hours and 50 minutes under stoppage, the rain eased enough to allow the action to continue.

It didn’t take long for the intensity to immediately pick up again as teams battled for position at the front-end of a field that’s not had the opportunity to spread out because of the number of safety cars.

Indeed it didn’t take long for another safety car to be called for after Graham Davidson crashed the Lazarus Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo coming out of Blanchimont. The car had to be recovered so the field was neutralised. However, the safety car failed to pick up the lead Audi of Rast – who had just inherited the lead in the pitstop phase – it instead picked up the second-placed Walkenhorst BMW M6 GT3 of Christian Krognes which had held the top spot until it pitted.

That gave Rast a 51sec lead as he was allowed to breeze off up the road while the rest of the field bunched up.

Behind the Audi, Yelmer Buurman has powered the #4 Mercedes-AMG Team Black Falcon Mercedes-AMG GT3 up into second, with the GPX Racing Porsche 991.2 GT3R currently sitting in third with Richard Lietz just as the 21-hour mark was reached.

Adding yet more manufacturer variety to the top of the order is the #563 FFF Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo of Dennis Lind which has had a clean run through the field.

One erstwhile front-runner that has dropped down the order is the #72 SMP Racing Ferrari 488 GT3. Coming out of Double Gauche, Mikhail Aleshin had a tank-slapper and just spun in front of the KCMG Nissan GT-R. The Nissan driver had nowhere to go and clipped the front-left wheel of the Ferrari, causing suspension damage.

The mechanics managed to get the car repaired and back out on track but is currently six laps down on the leader in 36th place.

Elswhere, Sandy Mitchell leads the Silver Cup standings for Barwell Motorsport, the same team that had led the Am Cup standings for a time, but is now trailing the #33 Rinaldi Racing Ferrari by a lap as the Ferrari team is yet to take its latest pitstop.

Pro-Am is still led by the all-conquering Oman Racing by TF Sport Aston Martin V8 Vantage of Nicki Thiim, Salih Yoluc, Charlie Eastwood and Ahmad Al Harthy. That car powered up the order from the pitlane and is two laps ahead of its nearest competition – the RAM Racing Mercedes.