Charles Weerts has spun the #32 Audi coming into Bruxelles corner. There's damage to the back of the car. It will have to be pitted and it may not continue. Pit stop time for a bunch of drivers here. Rowe Racing Porsche #98 in the lane, and one of the AKKA ASP Mercedes cars is also down there. That's the #89. A whole host of driver changes. Felipe Fraga is next into the #90 Mercedes. Not sure who is getting into the #98 Porsche. Marciello has to take his break now. He'll get some food and get a little rest. Scary for the teams in this rain as we see a Full Course Yellow. Mapelli and Estre will have a couple more stints to go yet. Felipe Fraga has to dial himself in racing at night and into how the car is handling. Audi in the lane as well for a couple of their cars. Dries Vanthoor in the lane, too, look. The top nine are in the lane. GPX, has both cars, and KCMG as well. Richard Lietz started one of those cars. Marciello did a triple stint.
Fred Vervisch is still in the top ten but is in the lane, still. Mattia Drudi is back in that car. Michael Christensen takes over one of the Porsche's. Sergey Sirotkin is in the SMP Racing Ferrari. Slowly, slowly, catchy monkey, a weirded out British phrase there by the way. KCMG car #21 in the lane as well. Josh Burdon from Australia sharing with Alexandre Imperatori from Switzerland, and Italy's Edoardo Liberati. Charles Weerts was tapped and the diffuser was touched. That car had to be craned away. We are under Full Course Yellow. Tricky ways for the drivers to be trundling around at 80 clicks. Flashing yellow lights tell us we are under caution.
Weerts was stuffed up the tail at Fangnes, a.k.a. the Piff Paff. Sorry. It was Bruxelles, Brussels corner, not Piff Paff. The safety car will be in at the end of this lap. We are investigating yet another incident between the Walkenhorst BMW and someone else. Safety car lights out. Time to go back to racing. Green flag. We're back racing again. Four hours and 20 minutes into the race. Cars are a lap down and they are getting into it with the leaders. Mapelli leads Fraga leads Christensen. Porsche #918 in the Am class is being lapped again and one of the Ferrari's, too. Dries Vanthoor runs fourth.
James Calado is also in that mess between Malmedy, Bruxelles, and Speaker's Corner. Sergey Sirotkin is moving up. That's the #72 SMP Racing Ferrari he shares with Davide Rigon and Miguel Molina. Dries Vanthoor needs to get clear to catch up to the KCMG Porsche #47 of Michael Christensen. Keep the car far to the right, on the straight, headed for La Source. The compression through Eau Rouge is unreal. Marco Mapelli has his foot buried. Maybe Felipe Fraga is tiptoeing. Fraga second, followed by Michael Christensen, Luca Stolz, Dries Vanthoor, and James Calado.
Charles Weerts, Frank Stippler, and Edoardo Mortara, are out of the race. They have had a mechanical issue. Game over. Fraga is pushing, pushing, pushing. Christensen is giving the Brazilian fits right now. It is really dark, as Taylor Proto is letting the leaders by. Dries Vanthoor goes by Proto. Vanthoor is chasing hard, through the glorious, notorious, infamous, Eau Rouge. It has changed a lot. In the late 1980s, with the Group A touring cars, the corner was just as amazing. The GT3 cars are fast and evenly balanced. Head for the friterie, the French fries, and beer, a Jupiler or a Stella Artois.
In Portugal, for the F1 race, they will be eating chicken and marzipan. Porsche #99 for Rowe Racing in the lane. Slick Pirelli P Zero tires. Sticker tires for them, for the car of Klaus Bachler, Dirk Werner, and Julien Andlauer. Laurens Vanthoor, Nick Tandy, and Earl Bamber are in the other car. Meantime, Dries Vanthoor is pursuing hotly, Michael Christensen. Dries Vanthoor is probing for third, hunting down the Porsche. Felipe Fraga is also running really well at this moment. Catching is one thing and passing is another.
The Audi lineup is jumbled after their DTM drivers couldn't come and play here at Spa because of the virus restrictions. Frank Stippler is the bloke who knows how to run a 24 hour race here at Spa. Stippler has done loads of laps in an Audi R8. The gap is growing between the two leaders. Fraga just can't catch Mapelli, but Christensen is coming too. Of the 56 starters, we've seen cars in and out of pit lane, but we have yet to see a retirement except for the one we just saw. Audi #30 slowed down to keep from being pinged by the marshals. So much darkness here at Spa. Unreal.
Dries Vanthoor closes on Michael Christensen at Les Combes and through Bruxelles. Felipe Fraga is being closed on by Michael Christensen through Pouhon. Dries Vanthoor is watching this scrap and thinks that he might be able to play as well. Christensen is harrying, and this only gives Dries Vanthoor to have an opportunity to get a bit of the apple. Christensen has more speed than Fraga does right now. The rain is at Eau Rouge. That is going to be sketchy. Look out, lads. Marco Mapelli is 3.1 seconds ahead of this. His lead has ballooned out to another second. Fraga has to push, push, push. Track limits for the #918 Herberth Porsche, driven by the quartet of Jurgen Haring, Dimitrios Konstantinou, Michael Joos, and Marco Seefried.
The sister car, #991 is the Allemann/Bohn/Renauer/Renauer car. We are nearly at the four hour mark and everyone is at it hammer and tongs. Marco Mapelli leads the motor race by 2.6 seconds. They move around the #108 CMR Bentley. Clement Mateu, sharing with Romano Ricci, Stephane Tribaudini, and Stephane Lemeret. Felipe Fraga continues to close on Marco Mapelli. Drive through for the aforementioned #918 Porsche. Marco Seefried is not happy. He has to serve the penalty as the car carries the penalty, not the driver. "Why the (expletive) do I have to serve this (expletive) penalty?!" Marco Seefried is booking it at the exit of Raidillon.
Oliver Wilkinson in the #69 Optimum Motorsports McLaren is back on track. 54th out of 56 though. That's not good. Pit stop time as well for one of the cars to get slick tires. Not sure who it is. Through Brussels corner, Dries Vanthoor runs in fourth place. Felipe Fraga ran wide at Pouhon and Porsche and Audi are in line. Michael Christensen in the Porsche is handling better than the Mercedes. Eddie Cheever III. is 27th overall in the #93 Sky Tempesta Racing Ferrari. #52 for AF Corse is in the lane. Lamborghini leads. Mapelli leads Fraga now by 1.7 seconds. Christensen has some clag, some road grime on the windscreen.
Christensen and Fraga are flying. Fraga hits the deck and sparks through Raidillon, through Eau Rouge and up the hill. Fraga is having trouble turning into Bruxelles. Christensen can try going for it. The gap is up to 3.8 seconds and James Calado is really moving in on Michael Christensen while Christensen has his hands full trying to move by Fraga. Marco Mapelli is 4.1 seconds to the good as Fraga and Christensen continue to scrap, hard. We haven't called Mattia Drudi's number for a while. He is reeling in James Calado hand over fist. Drive through penalty for Dinamic Motorsports, car #54. Not good for the Dinamic Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R. That car being shared by Sven Mueller of Germany, his countryman Christian Engelhart, and Matteo Cairoli, the Italian.
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