Kelvin van der Linde and company are out of the race. Making repairs to the #31 car are futile. Game over for Kelvin van der Linde, Dries Vanthoor, and Christopher Mies. We've had a rain shower, a sprinkle. Watch out for the Honda, car #30. We are back into racing with seven hour and six minutes now oin the board. Franck Perera, Vincent Abril, and Sergey Afanasiev are all in the pit lane. That's odd. They are back on track now. Giacomo Altoe at the controls of the #163 Lamborghini. Will Felipe Fraga pass Andrea Caldarelli. Drapeau vert as we get back to racing again. 143 laps, 622 miles. Tjeu dove through Eau Rouge and up the hil to Les Combes. The aero of the Lambo will work but the grunt of the Mercedes edges out ahead. Caldarelli throws the kitchen sink at Fraga and it doesn't quite work. That Mercedes V8 is quite the motor.
Fraga is booking it, and Patrick Pilet in the Porsche is closing, fast. Pilet was just a few second behind. Fraga is really defending, repelling the challenge from the champ! Another yellow. Jeepers. Oh dear, oh dear. Great defense from Fraga. This is a Full Course Yellow. No overtaking. Car #111, Jens Liebhauser has hit the wall. If this Full Course Yellow does not turn into a safety car, this could be the trump card for the #163 Lamborghini and be in the pound seats for the restart. Some sweeping will be conducted. Sweeping and cleaning. Altoe and a couple others will be in a slight pickle.
Fraga, Caldarelli, Pilet, Nielsen, Niederhauser, Van der Zande, the top six. #63 Lamborghini in the lane. Now, Marciello and Fraga are going to have to watch out because they can't do more than 14 of the 24 hours in this race. Frank Stippler was worn out after winning in 2012. He drove the car single-handedly. When the weather is really bad, it is doubly hard. Renger van der Zande is going to hit the lead of the motor race or so it appears. Mercedes #88 is in the lane. Raffaele Marciello is back into the car, not Timur Boguslavskiy.
Dennis Lind in #63, and Matthieu Jaminet now in the #12 GPX Porsche. Maxime Martin is in the Aston Martin and David Pittard is now at the wheel of the #35 Walkenhorst BMW. He is sharing with Nick Yelloly and Martin Tomczyk. Brazil's Marcos Gomes is now at the wheel of the #27 Hub Auto Ferrari he is sharing with Kamui Kobayashi and Tom Blomqvist. Now, Renger van der Zande is in the lane in the #29 Honda NSX GT3 that he shares with Dane Cameron and Mario Farnbacher. Dane Cameron has not raced here before and he has not run in Europe for a long, long time. Fuel in and tires onto the car.
We remain under Full Course Yellow. Earl Bamber leads and here comes the safety car. 147 laps, 639 miles down. Raffaele Marciello is in second. In replay we watch as Raffaele Marciello moves into the race lead back to the top over Earl Bamber. Bamber did not make it difficult. He started the race and did three stints. Rowe Porsche #99 in the pit lane, Dirk Werner at the cvontrols as the leaders head through Curve Paul Frere, (Stavelot). We're now definitely in proper darkness. Patrick Niederhauser is flying as well. He is fifth. Klaus Bachler is now driving the #99 Porsche.
Dennis Lind is pushing Earl Bamber. Marciello leads Bamber by 1.3 seconds and Bamber is going to have Dennis Lind all over him. Marcos Gomes is 19th. Mikael Grenier, the Canadian, has a drive through penalty in the #14 Emil Frey Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3. David Pittard and Marcos Gomes have gained over Klaus Bachler as we have a Porsche off the road, Andrea Rizzoli in the #56 Dinamic Motorsports Porsche having stopped at the Bus Stop. Andrea Rizzoli from Italy at the controls. He shares with Adrien de Leener from Belgium, Mikkel O. Pedersen from Denmark, and Cedric Sbirrazuoli from Monaco.
Drive through penalty for the #14 car, suspended. The team can plead their case to the stewards as Chris Froggatt is running very well in 20th place through Les Combes. Chris Goodwin is running well, and that Porsche is sitting the wrong way, with no lights on. Hard to see if there are tire marks or anything like that. We will be coming to the end of the seventh hour of this race fairly soon. Raffaele Marciello is finding tenths, and we hope we don't have another safety car. We have had plenty of those. Vincent Abril has had a drive through penalty but no penalties yet for the #163 Lamborghini. Marciello leads the motor race.
Porsche #56 is out. The flatbed will recover it but it's out of the 24 Hours of Spa. Yet another retirement. One of the two Dinamic Motorsport Porsche's is out. Niederhauser has moved around Pier Guidi and Patrick Niederhauser. Full Course Yellow, again, to recover the Porsche. This is going to be a quick Full Course Yellow, as we get close to another racing hour being complete. We won't need the safety car. At least it doesn't seem like it. Goodness. What a race this has been so far and it is only midnight, I think. 11PM or midnight.
The Porsche is moving. Take it easy. Don't take any risks. They had to move the flatbed out of the way to use the access road, giving him a straight, flat tow. Raffaele Marciello is back to the lead of the motor race. Green flag is show as the tires didn't lose that much time. That was a two minute process. No safety car. He will maintain the gap. Watch the #66 Audi, Fred Vervisch at the controls. He's been doing well in GT3 and in World TCR as well. Raffaelle Marciello leads this motor race as we get close to another racing hour beginning. We have just over 17 hours left.
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