We are now 2/3rds of the way through this year’s 24 Hours of Spa. The Porsche that we saw pass Pierburg, he was a tenth or two of a second quicker than the Mercedes man, and so, Pierburg wisely decides discretion is the better part of valor and lets him through. Stay sensible, chaps. Stay sensible. Valentin Pierburg also had to know Rik Breukers in the Mad Panda Motorsport Mercedes was there, and Breukers, the Dutchman, should be coming to the end of his stint by now before handing over to one of his co-drivers. We can see the SPS Automotive Mercedes still had globs of tire clag on the windscreen. The drivers don’t really notice that.
A fresh tearoff at the next pit stop will be essential. The latest track limits warning is given to the #911 Herberth Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R. Robert Renauer is at the wheel of it, sharing with his brother Alfred Renauer, and their co-drivers are Antares Au of Turkey, and Switzerland’s Daniel Allemann. The driver who is in the car at the time, a given number of warnings are accumulated, will have to cop the penalty if he wants to or not. Let’s hope we have no worries with track limits. But you can never tell. We are currently following the #63 Orange 1 FFF Lamborghini with Mirko Bortolotti behind the wheel.
Both Bortolotti and Bell are catching Markus Winkelhock as we speak. Constant adjustments through the sweeper and into the final chicane, the Bus Stop. They are not clattering the curbs like they did during Super Pole, nursing the car home to the end of the race. Nicklas Nielsen is a lap up on the Rob Bell driven Jota McLaren. Finally, finally, finally, Jules Gounon has been told to bring the #88 AKKA ASP Mercedes to the garage, and the mechanics are getting a good hard look at the suspension damage on that automobile. We’ve wondered and wondered when they’d bring that car into the lane and into the garage.
So, with the retirement of the #88 Mercedes, this will promote the #159 Garage 59 Aston Martin to third spot. Nicklas Nielsen in the lead of the motor race has been cutting consistent laps in the 2:21 bracket while Mirko Bortolotti is eighth, but now that #88 is parked, they will move up a place. Audi still has the most cars in the top ten with four. There’s still one each from Ferrari, McLaren, Porsche, and Aston Martin. That blended candy dish of makes and still present as the cars fly through Eau Rouge again. One of the other Mercedes’ has some slightly damaged bodywork but it isn’t bad. Nicklas Nielsen’s lead has increased now to 42.6 seconds.
Jules Gounon says that the broken damper happened four hours into the race. They had no opportunity under Full Course Yellow to fix the damper and he says, “the damper is bent completely out of shape. It is broken.” The team has never had this issue. They’ve been preparing for this race all year. They will have to come back in 2022 and try again. Their pace was amazing, but it is really tough to push through Eau Rouge with a broken shock. Gounon knew he had to take risks to stay on the lead lap, and that’s how motorsports is. It is a love/hate relationship. Gounon says the car was easy to drive until the trouble hit them with the damper.
Loads on the left side of the car with a bent shock for four hours. Absolutely unreal. Jules Gounon is very good with describing how things are, just like his dad Jean Marc Gounon. It would have been very scary to drive that car, and very uncomfortable. Through the La Source hairpin goes the Lamborghini, and then up through Eau Rouge and a wee bit sideways there, look in the middle of the corner. The undertray is scuffing along the pavement as Mirko Bortolotti is still catching Rob Bell. Meantime, Rob Bell is closing in fast on Markus Winkelhock. Nothing in this three-way scrap has changed all that much.
Bortolotti is pushing hard and giving Rob Bell absolute fits! Half a tire is enough to stay within the boundaries of track limits, but Rob Bell has received a final warning from the stewards, incurring their ire. So, if he goes off the road again, he’ll be headed for the sin bin, for a drive through penalty in the pit lane. He must watch his step, trying to move around those cars ahead of him. Bell cleanly moves past one of the lapped Ferrari’s. Not sure which one he just went around. Can’t quite pick out the number even though it is daylight now.
Bell in his earlier stint described the fog and mist as being a real hindrance. Ferrari #51 still in the lead of this motor race. But Nicklas Nielsen now has just 40 seconds in hand over Kelvin van der Linde. All seems well for Nielsen at this point. He could very well be in the catbird seat. But being in the catbird seat is nothing you can really affirm with just under nine hours to go in one of these 24-hour races. A large slice of luck is truly necessary. As the old saying goes “it’s not over ‘til it’s over.” In clear track, you ask for another second and may receive. Traffic giveth. Traffic taketh away. Safety cars giveth. Safety cars taketh away.
We’ve said it numerous times in numerous races because it holds true, for both sprint and endurance format sports car races. That is motorsport and the story of a 24 hour race. Into the compression at Eau Rouge, Kelvin van der Linde moves past the #7 Toksport WRT Mercedes. That car runs 22nd in the overall with Marvin Dienst at the keyboard right now. We can see down the Kemmel straightaway back towards Raidillon. That’s a relief. The drivers are dlashing their lights at slower cars to tell them they are coming through. We’ve seen a lot of drive through penalties for speeding in the lane, and speak of the devil, we have another.
This is the #61 EBM Giga Racing Porsche. Nicklas Nielsen does not have to take many risks leading this motor race. Car #23, the Porsche of Huber Motorsports in the Am class is hanging right in there. They are still running behind the #166 Haegell by T2 Racing Porsche. We don’t know who is at the wheel of #23 at the present time. But, the team has Jacob Schell of Germany sharing with countryman Nico Menzel, and two Swiss drivers, Ivan Jacoma, and Nicolas Leutwiler. Glad to see Jens Liebhauser of Germany at the wheel of the #10 Boutsen Ginion BMW M6 GT3 still in the motor race after his earlier scare with a flat tire. The German is currently running 41st in the overall.
That was the car we saw earlier on with a collapsed left rear suspension. Thought at the time they’d retire, but thank heavens, they are back in the motor race. Louis Machiels brings the #52 AF Corse Ferrari to pit lane for scheduled service. He is leading in the Pro-Am division, running 16th in the overall. We should see the race leading #51 Iron Lynx Ferrari in the pit lane momentarily as the lollipop man is preparing to signal the car into the lane. They might pit next time by. The “Roar” livery we saw on the #10 Boutsen Ginion BMW, was penned and sketched by the same artist who draws and writes the Michel Vaillante comic book, the story of a French racing driver which was also turned into a cartoon series and a movie.
Rob Bell steadily closing. The #63 Lamborghini is clawing back lost time as well. Speaking of Lamborghini’s, in the pit lane we have the #77 car, the Barwell Motorsports example of a Lamborghini Huracan. Miguel Ramos of Portugal currently behind the wheel. They have a stop scheduled and may have a penalty to serve. The #47 KCMG Porsche is in the lane now, from fifth spot. Rob Bell should pass the KCMG car which of course is being shared by Nick Tandy, Laurens Vanthoor, and Maxime Martin. Oh dear! More trouble for the #16 GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini!
Austria’s Clemens Schmid has nosed that car into the barrier! He’s stopped there, and this will scramble the safety car for sure. We saw Tim Zimmerman have a big crash in this car during practice or qualifying and we’ve seen it in strife at other points earlier on in the race as well. Barwell just made their pit stop and we will see if anyone else ducks for the lane. We are going to have either a safety car or a Full Course Yellow. Duncan Cameron may have taken over the #52 AF Corse Ferrari from Louis Machiels on their pit stop. We cannot be sure of that, however.
Check that. Duncan Cameron is driving the sister car, #53. John Wartique was the driver to take over the #52 entry. We have a Full Course Yellow coming. Alain Adam should be giving the orders as the marshals lceran up the Lamborghini. We do have a Full Course Yellow on the signboards. Rob Bell brings in the #38 Jota Sport McLaren. We’ve also seen the race leader in the lane, the #51 Ferrari for Iron Lynx. We can see that #38 are taking their long pit stop, their technical pit stop, for changing brakes, right now. This Full Course Yellow is a blessing for those boys. They didn’t want to do the tech pit stop under green flag conditions. Team boss at Jota, Sam Hignett will be breathing a huge sigh of relief!
Ditto for the leader, the #51 Iron Lynx Ferrari. They have 42 seconds in hand over second spot at this moment. Some pit stops have been calm. Frantic action for Iron Lynx, who are very much new to the game of endurance sports car racing. They have been racing here in SRO, and in other championships in Europe, and have come from being purveyors of and running a racing school. Kelvin van der Linde has the #32 Audi in the lane, as we watch the marshals craning away the #16 Lamborghini. So, Rob Bell is in the lane in the Jota McLaren, or he was, and so is the #89 AKKA ASP Mercedes of Lucas Auer. That is the car they will focus on, since their favorite for the win, their favored entry #88 is now out of the race.
The #32 Audi is now on the dollies going into the garage for the brake change, for their technical pit stop. Nicklas Nielsen has completed his pit stop, and he is down off the air jacks, and away back into the race. He is clear to go. Go, go, go! Again, #32 is in for their brake change. The sister car did not want to do that pit stop until the brakes were really, really worn down. #37, they were waiting for a Full Course Yellow to minimize the damage but could not do so. #32 is now waiting to rejoin the race and it’s agonizing waiting for the cars to come out of the pit lane, and they are on the 60 kilometer per hour pit speed limit. Kelvin van der Linde was clear to go as they are right at pit out.
We remain under Full Course Yellow here at Spa Francorchamps with a shade over eight and a half hours of the race to go. The technical pit stop is timed, and WRT undertook their brake change so fast that they had to wait before they were in fact clear to exit the lane. The actual technical stop is timed for four minutes, but most of the teams can just go bish, bash, bosh, and get the pads and rotors for the brakes changed in two minutes. Into the daytime on Sunday morning, slow speeds trundling ‘round behind the safety car looks pedestrian compared to full chat motor racing.
It rained briefly, a brief and heavy shower yesterday afternoon. But we did not have overnight rain at Spa for the first time in a long while. We’ve had a lot of clean racing and fewer retirements than we expected from this originally 58 car field. Rob Bell is ninth in the overall a lap down. But he is running right behind Nicklas Nielsen. Pit stop time here, look, for the #159 Aston Martin. Valentin Haase-Clot is in the car, and they are going for a brake change as well. They will make that pit stop, but how much longer will the yellow stay out? The #16 GRT Grasser Lamborghini has indeed been moved.
Also, into the pit lane comes the #31 WRT Audi. Anyone taking a stop now is really risking it before we go green and might have to wait a bit to take their technical stop to change brakes. There are other cars behind it in their pit stalls. Eight and a half hours to go. It is incredible that Dries Vanthoor has made up 52 places throughout this motor race. We have seen the #51 and #63 cars heroically leading and it’s a dang shame that the #88 Mercedes is out of the motor race after it’s broken shock absorber. Hat a horrid shame. So, one of the Lamborghini’s exits the lane. Good morning. Grab a Belgian waffle with either butter, sugar, or maybe berries and whipped cream, or maybe even honey, and join us for the conclusion of this great race.
We still have over 1/3rd of it to go. The track is dry but it is full of tire debris. Race Director Alain Adam now calls for safety car procedure to be followed. If you are the race leader, a lot of your advantage you’ve built up will be eaten into. Now, we are under yellow because Valentin Pierburg who we were singing praises of earlier, he has beached it in the gravel trap and the #20 SPS Automotive Performance Mercedes with sponsorship from Richard Mille watches, he must be rescued. He just spun on his own accord, but the rear wheels are going to dig into that gravel trap and he’s going to be buried if he’s not careful.
He just spun it, running slowly around the racetrack. Just ran out of talent there for a wee while. OK. OK. When I said ran out of talent, I was only joking. The power of that big V8, just whipped poor old Valentin Pierburg around and now he’s just sitting there. The fog is cleared up and the sun is reappearing. The track is warming up and the lap times will be coming down soon. We welcome back our mates David Addison and John Watson to the broadcast booth and say farewell to Bruce Jones and Charlie Butler-Henderson who have done yeoman service through the night. There’s a bunch to catch up on, and we have ended a safety car period.
A number of cars have lost laps because of making their mandatory technical pit stop under green flag conditions. Ferrari #51 with Nicklas Nielsen driving still leads. The battle for sixth spot is heating up like crazy as Patric Niederhauser at the wheel of the #25 Audi Sport Team Sainteloc, he is having the blowtorch applied by Mirko Bortolotti in the #63 Orange 1 FFF Lamborghini. Bortolotti is pressing hard to get a lap back. Niederhauser and Bortolotti are both a lap down. But these two chaps, are stuck, look, in the traffic, right on top of each other. This field is still stacked up on the restart like a plate of those famous Belgian waffles we talked about earlier.
There’s no rom for the whipped cream on that plate or these guys would be running into each other. Poor old Niederhauser gets wrong footed in the traffic and almost gets mugged by Senore Bortolotti! Wow! Whoa! Even more action, as someone is way off the road! Who was the chap who got clipped there? That was the much beleaguered #23 Porsche or so it appeared. Dennis Lind in the #37 WRT Audi, he is pressing hard to try and move around Mirko Bortolotti. We saw Lind in this race last fall press really hard but it came to naught after he retired. This year could be a different story. Bortolotti wants by but can’t quite make it. The top three cars are scampering away because they are on the lead lap compared to this shemozzle, we’re seeing in the latter half of the top ten or top dozen.
Traffic in the way at the last chicane which used to be called The Bus Stop. Niederhauser, Bortolotti, and Lind, these three are the ones scrapping for a position. Bortolotti is holding firm and not letting “Dennis, The Menace” Lind get by. We can see loads of junk on the side of the road. Lind is right on Bortolotti’s six. He is going for it big time! Everyone is running flat out even through traffic. Up through Raidillon they go. Bortolotti just didn’t have the oomph to pass and poor old Niederhauser is trapped in traffic. Niederhauser knows his next target is the #47 KCMG Porsche, currently in the hands of former Spa 24 Hours race winner, Maxime Martin.
Niederhauser’s Audi is smoking and could be losing pace. We don’t know if that is a tire rub on the right rear fender, or, if it is a fluid leak such as oil spewing out the back of the car. It began when the Audi came through Bruxelles and then into Speaker’s corner. If that is bodywork rubbing, it could cut a tire. Lind is all over Niederhauser like a cheap suit now. Bortolotti passes Maxime Martin and gets him out of the traffic. Wait. Let me correct myself. Bortolotti will now be going after Maxime Martin and trying to catch and pass him. That is what we may see happen here before long.
Laurens Vanthoor has tweeted that he had an accident in the pit lane of some sort. We will have to find out what that is all about. Laurens Vanthoor has been taken to the hospital with some cuts and wounds to his face. So, now, this will put the KCMG Porsche team in a pickle because Maxime Martin and Nick Tandy will have to run the rest of this race as a duo, just like the old days, when these 24-hour races were completed usually by a tandem of only two drivers. For many years that is how this race was run, and the Spa 24 Hours was no exception from it’s beginnings in 1924 up until the last time a duo won, 40 years ago in 1981. That was a Mazda RX7 driven to victory by Tom Walkinshaw and Pierre Dieudonne.
Other legendary duos have won this race before too. Just look at the winners’ chart.
https://www.totalenergies24hours.com/winners
Which trio will we add to that today? We’re not done yet and we’ll have to find out. We wish Laurens Vanthoor well. He hit an ATV, a quad bike, while riding his scooter through the paddock and there was a wreck there, a fender bender. Bortolotti is being monstered by Dennis Lind right now. He is really pushing hard through Speaker’s corner and Bortolotti is pushing really haerd but into the Fangnes corner, he might just be on the wrong side of the road. Just be patient. Don’t force the issue. Work it out, and understand the racetrack. So, Mirko Bortolotti now runs ahead of Alexandre Imperatori who is at the wheel of the sister KCMG Porsche, the #18 car.
The Orange 1 FFF Lamborghini had two drive through penalties during the night. Bortolotti has a clear road while Dennis Lind is three cars back and he is still slicing and dicing his way through traffic. Alexandre Imperatori is looking to pass Valentin Pierburg who we saw quite literally trapped in a gravel trap earlier on. Up the hill they go again toward Raidillon and then back down the hill. Bortolotti’s most recent lap was 2 minutes and 22 seconds. Nikki Thiim’s lap time set during the nighttime hours, at 2:18 and change remains the fastest lap of the motor race thus far.
Ross Gunn is in the Aston Martin. Ross Gunn is half a minute down on Dries Vanthoor. Rob Bell, we can see he is running ninth in the overall in McLaren #38. Bell is two laps down after a drive through penalty and being wrongfooted during the safety car scramble. The gap from first to second in 13 or so seconds. #51, the leading Ferrari has now run 366 laps, 1,593 miles. The top end of the pit lane is lonely right now. WRT has new tires out. Dennis Lind is due in to finish his stint and he has three minutes to go. Dries Vanthoor runs second as he has lost 4/10ths of a second to Nicklas Nielsen, or rather, Nielsen has pulled that gap out.
In comes Dennis Lind into the pit lane. “Dennis The Menace” will do a double stint. We also see another WRT Audi, that is the Gulf Oils sponsored machine currently in the hands of the rapid Argentinian Franco Colapinto. That is the #30 car that Colapinto is sharing with James Pull and Benjamin Goethe. The screen is cleaned. Teams have tear off’s on the windscreen but they are only allowed four during the whole of the race. So cleaning the windscreen is a far better option than wasting all of the tear off’s. Only two mechanics can do the tires. Part of the inside of the fender around the rear wheel is released and a few liters of oil also added.
Ross Gunn still runs in third spot as we hear the voice of Race Director Alain Adam on the radio. “Drive through penalty to car #2, disrespecting track limits.” That is the GetSpeed Mercedes AMG GT3. Florian Scholze at the controls, running way down in 24th spot. Ross Gunn is 35 seconds behind, stuck in traffic and losing time. The Aston is being stymied by Balance of Performance or so it appears. Now, we have a reset on the fastest trap speeds in Eau Rouge. So, where we are with that is that Ross Gunn is fastest at 247 kilometers an hour (154 and 3/8ths miles an hour: 154.375), Ollie Milroy in the #70 Inception Racing McLaren at 246 kilometers an hour (153 and ¾ miles an hour, 153.75), Rob Bell at 245 kilometers an hour in the #38 Jota Sport McLaren (153.125 miles an hour), and two cars tied for fifth fastest in the speed traps.
Those are the #87 AKKA ASP Mercedes of Konstantin Tereschenko, and the #159 Garage 59 Aston Martin of Valentin Haase Clot. Both are racing at 243 kilometers an hour (151.875 miles an hour). So, just about a three mile an hour spread. Patric Niederhauser is trying to unlap himself and Ross Gunn does not need the Audi around him. He is probably saying, “come on, leave me alone!” Eau Rouge speeds are fractionally down because this track has been pasted for 368 laps. Alexandre Imperatori wisely lets Ross Gunn through. Leading the Silver Cup is still the #90 Mad Panda Motorsports Mercedes AMG GT3, Dutchman Rik Breukers at the controls.
This car has run well with very little drama. Breukers and Finland’s Patrick Kujala have been the two real hot shoes in this car. Valentin Hasse Clot who we mentioned in the Aston Martin is second in the Silver Cup division and there’s 1/3rd of a lap between these two as Hasse Clot, the Frenchman, is doing the chasing. Through the final two turns they go to start yet another lap here at Spa as the 16th hour of this motor race winds to a close. We are starting yet another racing hour right now and they are dwindling down. Are we there yet? We’re close. We’re going to be there before you know it.
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