24 Hours of Spa: Hour 3

Bortolotti is homing in on Lucas Auer up into sixth place.  Bortolotti flings the car out of Les Combes down to Bruxelles.  Auer is fifth.  Ben Barnicoat is eating into Nico Muller’s margin.  Factory GT3 drivers are supposed to go flat out.  That’s what they are paid by the automakers to do.  Breukers was not ready to roll over and play dead.  Breukers did give him enough racing room.  Some mutual respect between two great GT3 drivers.  Kelvin van der Linde presses on but there is another big scrap behind.  David Pittard racing with Ricardo Feller, Matthieu Jaminet, Adrien Tambay, Pittard makes the BMW very wide and has all these other chaps right on his six.  It’s a land rush, a mob of GT3 cars.

The BMW M6 GT3 is a massive yet wonderful race car in it’s final year of competition before we see widespread use of the new BMW M4 GT3.  Pittard slips up in La Source and now has Feller right alongside.  Three-wide down the straight!  Look at that.  Pittard drops two places to Jaminet and to Feller in fell swoop.  The second KCMG Porsche 911 GT3R is in this pack, but it has been delayed.  That is the car of Edoardo Liberati of Italy, Alexandre Imperatori from Switzerland, and Australian Josh Burdon.  Adrien Tambay in the meantime wants to pass Ricardo Feller and David Pittard.  Adrien Tambay the son of former Formula 1 and sports car driver, Patrick Tambay.

Poor old Josh Burdon is way down the order, the last lead lap automobile languishing in 54^th place.  His speed is there.  They have been racing with Porsche’s a lot these last few years whether here in Intercontinental GT Challenge or elsewhere like the NLS, the endurance championship at the Nurburgring Nordschleife.  Porsche has not been this team’s wheelhouse.  They’ve run Nissan GTR’s running the car known as “Godzilla” to great effect over the years.  There’s a long, long, long way to go.  Confidence is returning to the drivers.  Kelvin van der Linde is going for a pass on Martin Tomczyk in the BMW, the second Walkenhorst Motorsports #35 BMW through Campus.  Kelvin van der Linde is making his move and taking no prisoners!

This is the fight for 11^th place in the overall.  Two hours and five minutes ago, this #32 Audi started from 54^th place and has made up 43 spots!  They are way ahead of schedule but van der Linde makes an error in that diabolical final turn slipping over the paint and running wide.  For the GT World Challenge Europe contenders, this is a triple points round because they will score at six hours, at halfway, and at the end of the motor race.  Keep your quick drivers in the car for the first half of the race.  KCMG are the first car to come to the pit lane for returning to slick tires.  This is the #47 car.

The way you can tell cars are nominated by manufacturers for Intercontinental GT Challenge is that the Fanatec windscreen banner is white with black letters as opposed to black with white letters.  Eddie Cheever and Phil Keen are catching Andrea Bertolini.  Phil Keen is the quickest of the three drivers in this Lamborghini.  Keen is aboard the #19 Orange 1 FFF Lamborghini.  The Brit is sharing with Hiroshi Hamaguchi of Japan, Stefano Constantini of Italy, and Belgian former IndyCar racer turned sports car racer, Bertrand Baguette. 

Keen is right on Eddie Cheever’s six right now.  Clemens Schmid in the Silver Cup Lamborghini running 34^th is also catching this group.  Schmid, we saw in the pit lane earlier, the #16 GRT Grasser Lamborghini, the Schmid/Zimmerman/Di Folco/Galbiatti car.  Phil Keen, a Brit, is also in the British GT Championship which raced here last weekend.  Miguel Molina, too, is right behind Clemens Schmid.  Five Italian cars liner stern in this scrap we watch right now.  Molina, the rapid Spaniard is sharing the #53 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GT3 in an international lineup with Matt Griffin from Ireland, Duncan Cameron from England, and Italian Rino Mastronardi.  Some of them we have seen racing for Ferrari in other GT classes in different sports car championships already this year.

The sole surviving Iron Lynx Ferrari hits the pit lane, Come Ledogar at the controls.  Cheever wants to pass Bertolini and cannot quite get there.  He runs way wide over onto the runoff area down the front straightaway!  Cheever has abused track limits there.  Out of La Source they come, and Cheever picks up second in the Pro-Am class with Phil Keen opportunistically following him through.  He was not going to wait and knew he had to pounce.  No rest for the weary here at Spa Francorchamps with 58 cars on the track.  Christopher Mies has stayed on slicks, but he is way down in 50^th spot.  A couple other drivers have served pit stops. 

Andrea Bertolini has dropped back.  As we’ve had all this action in the midfield, you probably wonder, where the heck have the leaders been?  Well, you’ve missed nothing as Nico Muller continues in the lead over Ben Barnicoat in the McLaren.  Muller’s lead is 4.7 seconds.  Christopher Mies as we’ve said is a lap down.  Raffaele Marciello in the Mercedes is third, the #88 AKKA ASP Team AMG Mercedes the Italian shares with Jules Gounon of France and Daniel Juncadella of Spain.  Then comes Luca Stolz aboard the #4 HRT Mercedes.  The German sharing that car with countryman Maro Engel, and Vincent Abril of France. 

Lucas Auer runs fifth and then in sixth and seventh as we see a Ferrari pitting, there is Rik Breukers in the Mad Panda #90 Mercedes who has moved by Mirko Bortolotti in the #63 GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini.  Bortolotti has pitted as we now see other cars diving for the pit lane for scheduled service.  Bortolotti has stayed behind the wheel and the gamble for Christopher Mies and Audi Sport Team WRT has not paid dividends.  He will have to pit, right on the cusp of his maximum stint time and there’s the sun and blue sky coming.  Could WRT get lucky with a safety car?

Porsche #47, the KCMG Porsche 911 GT3R has Laurens Vanthoor at the controls.  Again, he is sharing that car with Maxime Martin and Nick Tandy.  Poor old Laurens Vanthoor while on the lead lap, he is languishing down in 42^nd place.  This was the first car we saw make the switch to the Pirelli P Zero slick tires.  Come Ledogar in the #51 Iron Lynx Ferrari 488 GT3 on slick tires as well.  Maybe the KCMG boys were sent out as a bellwether to gauge how the Porsche teams in the race have to run their tire strategy if the weather changes.  More pit action and everyone is reacting.  Get off the wets and go to the slicks.  Driver changes as well.  Marciello, Barnicoat, and Muller all pit now. 

Luca Stolz stays out and should inherit the lead in the interim.  Andrea Bertolini also brings the #52 AF Corse Ferrari to the lane.  The Jota McLaren is in, #38, Ben Barnicoat driving.  The pit lane is surely crowded, just like it kind of always has been in this race, even dating back to the heyday of the touring car years here at Spa back in the ‘80s.  Kelvin van der Linde pits the WRT Audi as well.  The sun is going to help drying the track.  What is it like off the racing line?  We shall have to find out.  We saw that in the GT4 support race earlier on today.  Daniel Juncadella is now at the wheel of the #88 AKKA ASP Mercedes, replacing Raffaele Marciello.

Like Raffaele Marciello, Daniel Juncadella was another driver who came out of open wheel racing in Formula 3 Euro Series and then made his way into driving these ground pounding Mercedes GT3 cars.  Luca Stolz had taken over the lead of the motor race briefly before bringing the Haupt Racing Team #4 car into the lane.  We are being told the #93 Ferrari, the Sky Tempesta Racing automobile, needs to give a position back.  Max Hofer aboard the #99 Attempto Racing Audi inherits the lead of the motor race, but with a pit stop in his future.  Therefore, Nico Muller will be squabbling for the race lead along with Hofer and with Robin Frijns who has taken over for Nico Muller aboard the #37 Audi Sport Team WRT car.

Incidentally, the third driver in that car is the rapid Danish driver Dennis Lind, who we saw work much magic in a Lamborghini here last fall, before crashing out.  Frijns must get around Raidillon before the Mercedes cars come off pit lane and back onto the track.  There we see heading downhill is Maro Engel in #4.  43 laps, 187 miles complete.  One more lap of the circuit and we’ll have completed the distance of a Formula 1 Grand Prix around Spa.  But there’s still a long, long, long way to go.  Max Hofer is provisionally the race leader, but he has a pit stop in his future as we said earlier.

Laurens Vanthoor moves around the Pro-Am Lamborghini Huracan GT3 for Barwell Motorsports in 50^th spot.  That is the car being shared by Miguel Ramos of Portugal, British driver Sandy Mitchell, Ramos’ countryman Henrique Chaves, and Leo Machitski from Russia.  Rob Bell in the #38 Jota Sport McLaren is catching Laurens Vanthoor in the #47 KCMG Porsche.  Vanthoor has moved by Bell, and he is on a mission.  He is on older tires and on lighter fuel tanks longer into his stint than is his rival.  Putting the KCMG Porsche on slicks is paying dividends.  No spray to be found.  This track is bone dry. 

Christopher Mies is still at the wheel of the #66 Audi, and he wants to get back on the lead lap.  This is the Audi Sport Team Attempto car he shares with fellow German Dennis Marschall and Italian Mattia Drudi.  Porsche’s, usually excel in the wet, but Vanthoor, somehow has been able to make this Porsche work on a drying track.  Oliver Milroy in the #70 Pro Am ranked Inception Motorsports McLaren and he is 48^th in the overall but not giving any quarter to Mattia Drudi.  Drudi has just now taken over Audi #66 from Mies.  The tail’s away shot up the hill through Eau Rouge with these GT3 cars is utterly breathtaking!  It shows you just how fast they are.

Mattia Drudi goes through Les Combes.  Laurens Vanthoor has moved to second chasing down Robin Frijns.  They are completely in different stages of the stint.  We need a Full Course Yellow to put drivers back on the same page so that us commentators don’t get all dizzy trying to figure this stuff out.  Ollie Milroy as well, he is doing his darnedest to get by the Mercedes.  A moment of calm, and a clear road for Robin Frijns, the Dutchman, who leads this motor race.  Check that as Fabien Lavergne in the #99 Attempto Racing Audi could turn out to be the true leader.  The Frenchman has taken over from the Austrian, Max Hofer. 

Laurens Vanthoor wants a clean lap coming to the control line on the front straightaway but Oliver Milroy, ol’ Ollie is not giving up easily.  Again, another driver who will push the envelope to the nth degree.  Time for a pun as we have loads of time in the motor race.  No matter how far you push the envelope, it is still stationery.  The gap is 11.4 seconds between Frijns and Vanthoor with poor old Laurens Vanthoor caught in traffic.  He is in traffic, but the McLaren is extremely quick.  Rob Bell is third overall in the Jota McLaren and of course Ollie Milroy is in the other McLaren.  One is Pro and the other is Pro Am.  Daniel Juncadella continues to run well aboard the #88 Mercedes.  The evening here at Spa Francorchamps will be sunny and pleasant but even after the rain, the road is still treacherously damp.  Be careful out there, lads.  A greasy racetrack with slick tires, that’s sometimes a recipe for disaster.

Robin Frijns is blitzing the field right now, having uncorked a 2:22.1 last time by which is a ways off of the record lap, but still quick.  We’re trending towards optimal track conditions as Matthieu Jaminet and Thomas Neubauer also running fast.  Mirko Bortolotti by 7/10ths of a second, is catching Daniel Juncadella hand over fist.  The #222 Porsche has it’s final warning through the final turn, about track limits in that area.  That corner used to be called The Bus Stop because it was one in daily life, but that’s just not the case anymore.  That turn has been reprofiled to a point where it isn’t recognizable anymore. 

Juncadella will have lapped traffic to negotiate, and this could very well, look, give Bortolotti a chance to pounce.  Not that time.  Bortolotti is balked by a lapped Mercedes.  That was the #7 Mercedes AMG GT3 that started the motor race from the pit lane, Oscar Tunjo, the Venezuelan, at the controls.  That is the Toksport WRT car, not to be confused with Audi Sport Team WRT at all.  Tunjo sharing the car with Axcil Jeffries, the rapid Zimbabwean standout driver, Paul Petit of France, and Marvin Dienst of Germany.  Bortolotti can’t stroll by.  He must keep pushing as they head to Les Combes.  Nico Muller did a very good job on his stint.

He says that this is Spa as we know it, but the team knew what to do with their strategy.  The car has handled very well in the wet and they managed to hit the lead of the race after starting in 15^th.  This is a long race as we hear on the radio, Race Director Alain Adam posting the #30 Audi for track limits violations, pinging James Pull with a drive through penalty.  Pull remains at the wheel of the Team WRT Audi he is sharing with Franco Colapinto and Benjamin Goethe, the Argentinian and the Dane.  He has had his last warning and it won’t be the last.  It will be a barrage of this kind of penalty.  Jens Klingman meanwhile, leads the Pro Am category in the #10 Boutsen Ginion Racing BMW M6 GT3.

This is a car we have mentioned already the Klingman/Liebhauser/Ojjeh/Zimmer entry.  This is indeed the swansong for the M6 GT3 which has done yeoman service in GT3 competition for the last seven or so years before we see the BMW M4 GT3 being introduced in 2022.  The car has won here at Spa, at the Nurburgring 24 Hours and the Indianapolis 8 Hours.  Laurens Vanthoor and KCMG are getting back into contention.  We see Robin Frijns leading Laurens Vanthoor by 13 seconds.  The transition point with the new Pirelli tire is much less sensitive than the previous generation GT3 spec P Zero.

Robin Frijns leads the motor race with 48 laps done and dusted, 209 miles.  Laurens Vanthoor has lost a little time.  We are currently watching former DTM star Jamie Green in the #26 Sainteloc Racing Audi R8.  This is a team that has won overall here at the 24 Hours of Spa before.  Green, from England, sharing with countryman Finlay Hutchinson, and Adrien Tambay in the second car for Sainteloc.  The sister #25 car is the one that was a winner here years back. 

The star power in this race is incredible, and in all classes including the Pro Cup class.  We could see some surprises if the weather changes again.  Drive through penalty for exceeding track limits for Andrea Rizzoli in the #56 Porsche for Dinamic Motorsports as we welcome John Watson back to the race broadcast.  Up through Raidillon and Race Director Alain Adam comes on the radio and gives the #47 KCMG Porsche a drive through penalty for… you guessed it, disrespecting track limits.  That’s a major announcement!  Laurens Vanthoor, in second place in the overall.  A driver of the caliber of Laurens Vanthoor should realize what he is doing wrong.  This is going to be a bitter pill to swallow for the KCMG crew.  The team will feel that was unjustified.  No question about it.  A drive through penalty at 50 kilometers per hour incorporating the Formula 1 pit lane and the endurance pit lane down the hill to Eau Rouge.  Jeepers creepers!

Mirko Bortolotti is pushing but must be cautious.  Daniel Juncadella passes, and nothing gained, nothing lost for either of these drivers.  Rob Bell in the McLaren is next up.  This is a battle of the final podium place.  It’s extremely quick up the top of Raidillon.  Bortolotti is checking ventilation in the cockpit of the car.  It is not hot here in Belgium today but in a closed cockpit car, maybe it is getting a little warm and stuffy inside that race car.  Vanthoor is serving his penalty moving Rob Bell to second.  Robin Frijns in the lead, his gap has ballooned to 20 seconds.  Second, third, and fourth fight amongst themselves.  Felipe Fraga as well, has found his way past Matteo Cairoli.  That is the #89 AKKA ASP Mercedes vs. the #54 Dinamic Motorsports Porsche.  This is a battle for seventh.  Daniel Juncadella vs. Matteo Cairoli.  Dennis Olsen passes Jamie Green for 17^th place as well.

The fracas between the #56 Porsche and the #69 Mercedes is now under investigation by the stewards, the SRO and Royal Automobile Club of Belgium officials.  Fraga is lapping comparably to the others in front of him.  We also see Nelson Panciatici in the #107 CMR Bentley rapidly lapping the circuit as well.  Panciatici, the Frenchman, with another Italian sounding surname, sharing with countryman Pierre Alexandre-Jean, Stuart White from South Africa, and hometown racer, Ulysse de Pauw, a native Belgian.  This field has indeed been shuffled like a deck of cards.

Bortolotti, Juncadella, and Bell, Bell is going to dictate the pace.  Bortolotti could be quicker, but as we repeat ad nauseum, catching is one thing while passing is another.  Matteo Cairoli in seventh spot in the sister #54 Dinamic Motorsports Porsche now is slapped with a drive through penalty for, what else?  Disrespect of track limits.  When it rains, it pours.  You are given four warnings and when you get a fifth warning from the clerks of the course, you are penalized.  Some drivers are not listening.  Old habits die hard.  The track limits are being strictly observed.

Cutting the course is not a substitute for racing cleanly, to be honest.  So, if you dance on the wild side, you will pay the price.  Like I said earlier, misbehave, you can’t outrun the principal slapping you on the wrist with a ruler and dialing the telephone to say, “yes, so and so has been a naughty boy, disobeying the track limits.”  This car, the #54 will drop down the order.  Cairoli, the Italian, sharing with Austrian Klaus Bachler and German Christian Engelhart.  This is a fight for position.  Cairoli is right behind Felipe Fraga.  Fraga overtook Cairoli and Fraga is probably aware that Cairoli will serve a penalty.

Bortolotti and Juncadella are glued together while Rob Bell, he can run his own race.  Right now, Bortolotti is right on Juncadela’s six, or very nearly so.  Bortolotti bounds over the curbs, but the Lamborghini is compliant through Campus corner into the final chicane.  The Mercedes has the right of way since Bortolotti just does not have the momentum.  53 laps complete, 231 miles.  Robin Frijns has been caught in traffic and forced to give up some of his gap.  So, it looks like Bell, in the #38 Jota Sport McLaren can close in on him.  Again, Bell is sharing that automobile with Ollie Wilkinson and Ben Barnicoat in an all -British trio. 

Bortolotti is likely willing to be patient.  He would like to get around Juncadella.  He is having an issue with the air vent on that car.  It would be nice to see what the cockpit temperature issue is.  It would be nice for him, too, to dispatch of Juncadella and get on terms with Rob Bell.  The Lamborghini probably has a little more downforce than does the Mercedes.  The V8 Mercedes has the legs on the V10 Lamborghini up the Kemmel straightaway and that is why Juncadella can pull away from Bortolotti at this point.  Benjamin Goethe in the #30 Audi, he must know these chaps are back there and wants by.

 

Goethe did not know Bortolotti was there and oh dear, Ferrari #11 loops it out of Speakers’ corner!  That’s Germany’s Tim Kohmann at the controls.  He could have caught the curb.  You can’t look through the corner.  That spin is harmless.  He shares with three Italian’s, in that car and they are mired down in 54th spot.  Poor old Rob Bell has lost out big style because of that little kerfuffle back there and now Daniel Juncadella will be all over him like the proverbial cheap suit.  Bortolotti is glued to the back of the Mercedes Benz now as they come around to start yet another lap of this magnificent circuit, as we said, twisting, climbing, diving, through the Ardennes pine forests.

Bortolotti wants to make a move coming to La Source!  Bortolotti wants to make a move coming to La Source!  Juncadella is covering him, saying, “I’m not opening that door for you, sunshine.”  Bortolotti doesn’t care.  He’ll just bust the door down.  Well thought out as bish, bash, bosh, Mirko Bortolotti makes that pass as easy as you please.  Like taking candy from a baby.  Senor Juncadella will keep pushing.  You can bet the house on that one.  In other news, Matteo Cairoli serves his drive through penalty, and this promotes Maro Engel to seventh spot at the wheel of the #4 HRT Mercedes AMG GT3. 

Let’s watch this pass in replay from Mirko Bortolotti’s onboard camera.  Into the final turn on the track, Bortolotti is right glued to the back of the Mercedes.  Bortolotti has the drive and the traction, forcing Juncadella to go defensive.  Bortolotti goes left, fakes right, braking, a wee bit later into the turn, making an inside pass which is a pretty difficult thing to do on this section of the circuit.  He got the position on the downhill run to Eau Rouge and Juncadella just had to let him have it.  Bell is now going to get the treatment from Bortolotti and the Italian will not make life easy for the Brit in any way.

 

Through Campus and on the way to Stavelot, Bortolotti sees his window of opportunity to give Bell fits.  When your query is coming closer it is no different than the matador hanging the red silk in front of a bull.  You know that bull is going to charge.  Bear in mind, the symbol of Lamborghini is a charging bull.  Up the hill into La Source, with back markers in the way.  Bortolotti passes Bell, but Bell will fight back on the outside as they head once again for Eau Rouge.  Bortolotti fights back against Bell around the outside.  Bell didn’t have a chance of holding on there.

We hear chatter about drive through penalties over the radio.  We shall get to that in a moment, but this scrum between Bell and Bortolotti needs our undivided attention.  Bortolotti isn’t throwing in the towel.  No way.  Three cars fighting for second, third, and fourth in the overall.  This is what GT3 racing is all about, folks.  Wow.  Bortolotti stuck like glue to the tail of the McLaren and don’t discount Daniel Juncadella either.  He is still a danger man in this fight.  The other McLaren of Ollie Milroy is just ahead, and wouldn’t you know it, just as this battle was gaining steam, we have ourselves a Full Course Yellow in ten seconds.

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.  Full Course Yellow on the speedway!  Full Course Yellow on the speedway!  1, 2, 3, dip!  We’ve got a car in the wall on the downhill.  That looks like the Pouhon, Fangnes, Stavelot, that general area of the track.  Bell’s efforts pay dividends for now.  That is the beleaguered Ferrari, the #11 Tim Kohmann driven Kessel Racing automobile which is planted into the Armco at least on the left front corner.  He probably slid wide onto the wet grass and on slick tires, lost all traction, and… thud.  He hits the wall.  Simple as that.  We thought the car was reversing under it’s own power.  Nope.  That is the snatch truck pulling it to safety.

Tim Kohmann is back on the road.  Now, sunshine, keep that automobile in the right direction.  Easy does it, mate.  This is a short Full Course Yellow followed by a rapid safety car to regroup the field.  50 kilometers an hour, a pedestrian pace.  Kohmann raced Ferrari Challenge in 2020 and did some Asian Le Mans Series racing this winter that you read about on the blog.  But this is a major step for the young German to be in a full-fledged GT3 car with a major team.  Everyone in the fight we’ve been describing for about 15 minutes, they are now bunched in a wad.

This is going to be fascinating once we get done with the Full Course Yellow and head back to green flag racing and a clear road.  This will be a free for all when we turn them loose.  Strategy calls as McLaren and Grasser Lamborghini dive for the pit lane.  New boots, new Pirelli P Zero tires, and a full tank of petrol seems to be the order of the day here.  This is a strategy call although Daniel Juncadella in the Mercedes stays out on track.  By regulation, these drivers had 20 minutes left on the board in their stints if they’d chosen to use that.  Remember, a stint maximum length here in SRO in the Spa 24 is 65 minutes.

Robin Frijns stays out.  He’s maintaining the lead.  Tires, fuel, a driver change, and a clean windscreen for the #63 Lamborghini.  The Full Course Yellow continues after the Ferrari spun in Speaker’s corner and nudging the Armco barrier.  We also see a pit stop for the #38 Jota Sport McLaren.  Oh dear!  The #63 Lambo stalls just briefly.  It is back underway now.  So, who took over the car?  Andrea Caldarelli and Marco Mapelli are Mirko Bortolotti’s co-drivers.  It’s an all-Italian trio.  Cannot tell if it was Mapelli or Caldarelli who stepped into that automobile.  Audi #32, another WRT Audi is in the lane.  Likewise, Matthieu Jaminet pits the #22 GPX Porsche.  That’s the retro livery Martini car.  Wow.  Check this out.  The Lamborghini just beat the McLaren out of pit lane!

Marco Mapelli, look, will be in the catbird seat here.  That’s great pit work from Orange 1 FFF.  Super easy to do when the opposition is sitting still on the air jacks.  Now, these boys have made it back on track through that long combination pit lane with the Formula 1 pits on one end and then around the corner after La Source is the official endurance racing pit lane.  For this race, we use both.  It’s one thing to be an armchair quarterback sitting here in the easy chair, watching, wondering what the team could or could not, or did or did not do.  But they know their strategy.  These teams and drivers are purely professional for the most part.    

It is vital for the pit crews just like the drivers, to go to the gym and train.  You cannot be a lazy person like some of us who write about the sport are and expect to perform.  You must push yourself and be there for your team and your drivers.  The safety car has been deployed between Pouhon and Piff Paff.  For clarification, Fangnes and Piff Paff are the same corner.  Just to avoid any confusion, we may alternately refer to that turn throughout the race by either name.  Robin Frijns, the Dutchman, leads overall behind the safety car.  He and Audi Sport Team WRT with the #37 car have become the powerhouse through this race so far with car #37.

Frijns had a 20 second lead to play with during the green flag but the safety car erases that gap.  It crumples like paper.  The chaps who made their pit stops have reset their stint length and have fresh tires to boot.  Everyone is bunched up.  It’s valuable to keep drivers in the car instead of constantly rotating them through even though that strategy also has benefits, but more costs perhaps.  Robin Frijns has been in the car since the race started and has seen all the conditions.  Although he may be nearing the end of his maximum allotted drive time for a single spell, which looks like this has been nearly a triple stint. 

He will have to come in and hand the car to his well-known teammate.  Well, he has two well-known teammates in Dennis Lind and Nico Muller.  I think it’s Dennis’ turn as Nico has already run and did so in the rain.  Maybe they’ve drafted in the great Irish driver Tim O’Glock.  Wait, wait, wait.  That was an April Fool’s joke in July.  Timo Glock is German, not Irish.  He has been in GT racing, but I don’t think he is racing here this weekend.  He is also an ex-Formula 1 ace, as well as driving in the old DTM, the touring car era before they too changed to GT3 for this year.  This is the second safety car spell of the race as we quickly approach the completion of another racing hour here in the Ardennes Forest.