It is the pre-race show, for the 24 Hours of Spa. We welcome you to Southern Belgium, the pines of the Ardennes Forest and the Francorchamps, Malmedy, Stavelot triangle. Mighty, daunting, mythical, legendary. These are the adjectives used to describe this wonderful circuit. Seven kilometers that twist, climb, and dive through the mountains and the forest, in a true spectacle of speed. More can be said about Spa, and we return to the words of Richard Nichols and his introduction of the 1990 Group C prototype race that ran here which were also used for my intro to the FIA World Endurance Championship event back in May.
Richard's introductory words about the mighty Spa Francorchamps, profound. "Spa in Belgium is the town that gave its name to health farms the world over, and on a good day, it is indeed as pretty as a picture. Nestling in the Ardennes Forest, it is surrounded by rolling, wooded countryside and long, hilltop views. The town itself is a clean, tidy, Victorian showpiece, with a delicate, almost gentile air about it. But Spa, is famous for more than mineral water. It's home to the dramatic circuit of Spa Francorchamps, the legendary and challenging road circuit buried in the evergreen hills of the Ardennes. A difficult, four-and-a-half-mile switchback that is always listed in everybody's list of their three favorite circuits in the world. That's almost incredible, because Spa Francorchamps is known for it's clammy, rainy, misty, forest moods."
The mood for this weekend, should be beautiful weather. From what yours truly has seen and heard through practice and qualifying, there will be no rain in the forecast which is a relief. Yours truly has Spa marked as a bucket list track to go to. I have not been there yet. But from what I have seen, when it rains at Spa, man oh man, it really rains! Some teams will have three drivers and other's four. All GT3 cars in this race of course, and the separation really is by driver rating whether you are a Bronze, Silver, Gold, or Pro drivers. Iron Lynx, with two cars, they come in as defending champions. Rowe Racing upholds BMW's honor with the new M4 GT3. The gravel traps and the resurfacing here at Spa Francorchamps means that the team will have a major challenge.
GP Extreme, has Martini livery. Michael Christensen, Kevin Estre, and Richard Lietz are top drivers who have won overall before. Gold Cup will be one to look at. Watch for the Inception Racing McLaren 650S GT3. Get to the end without scratching the car. Iron Dames, the all-female team has Sarah Bovy, and her co-drivers. Sky Tempesta Racing has had a bear of a season but the Haupt Racing Team and Mercedes ant to be consistent. Chris Froggatt knows how important having a clean race will be.
CrowdStrike boss George Kurtz is delighted to be here at Spa. He loves Spa, the energy, the atmosphere. Their driver lineup is solid and they want to run their race. Remember, this championship is part of the overall and the Endurance Cup. Three pro drivers needed. Silver and Gold, Silver, Gold, Bronze, and then all Silver drivers. Nine brands will be represented. Six second short stop and 41 second long stop. A tech pit stop for service will need to be done between hours 11 and 22. Points scored at six, twelve, and 24 hours. So, that is how we will run it. This is also part of the global Fanatec GT World Challenge, Mercedes ahead of Audi, and last year's winners, Ferrari.
Spa is an incredible circuit, an incredible lap. Uphill and down dale through some of the most legendary corners in all of motor racing building speed all around. Don't run wide because you will hit the gravel traps and spear into the wall. Watch out for La Source hairpin and the daunting Eau Rouge. The grid is formed and packed. We are ready for 24 hours of GT3 racing. We welcome David Addison and John Watson to the broadcast booth. It is unseasonably warm here at Spa and we have the motorcycle racing legend, Valentino Rossi, in his first 24 Hours of Spa starting the race for Audi Sport Team WRT. The #46 car. Rossi driving with Nico Muller and more.
K-PAX of course was dropped to 30th because of a tech infraction and so Mercedes now are on the pole, the #88 Akkodis ASP Mercedes for Raffaele Marciello, Daniel Juncadella, and Jules Gounon. Watch for Antonio Fuoco in the #71 Iron Lynx Ferrari. Come Ledogar won the 24 Hours of Spa for Ferrari last year, but now he is a Porsche driver, in a rear engine car. He is driving with Dinamic Motorsports in the #54 Porsche 911 GT3R sharing with Klaus Bachler and Thomas Preining. The race begins at a quarter to five so it will be a long one between the darkness and the break of dawn tomorrow morning.
The final quarter, the last six hours, is when this race is really going to turn it on. Believe me. Get points at six and 12 hours as well as we clear the grid. Two or three cars will start from the pit lane. Fabian Schiller, at the base of Eau Rouge, he describes that turn as "crazy, special, and amazing" and it is all of those things. A new Pirelli tire this year as well for the GT3 cars. Safety car preferable to Full Course Yellow. Felipe Nasr is starting his first 24 Hours of Spa, the newly minted Porsche prototype driver. He is driving with Matthieu Jaminet and Matt Campbell in the #74 EMA Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R.
Mirko Bortolotti is going to start the #63 Emil Frey Racing Lamborghini Huracan. He shares with Albert Costa and Jack Aitken. Gravel is back at Spa after not being part of the track for about a decade. Clear the grid, everyone. It is time to go racing. We should not see Full Course Yellows lasting more than two laps. Nine brands, 66 cars. Kenny Habul's Mercedes had an engine change. Stephen Grove in the EBM Porsche and one of the Ferrari's also starts from the lane. Don't freak out about it. Join the race and then start racing for the next 23 hours, 59 minutes, and 45 seconds. The formation lap is underway. We have a massive grid full of top drivers in GT3. The ceremonial start is at Eau Rouge. The race finishes at the timing line at the end of the final chicane that used to be called the Bus Stop.
Raffaele Marciello and Klaus Bachler on the front row. This race will not be run in Eau Rouge and Raidillon but it can be lost. OK. Green flag! Go! Porsche to the lead and Klaus Bachler is ahead as they sweep uphill. Everyone clean so far through Raidillon to Les Combes and here comes the Aston Martin of Nicki Thiim. Bachler ahead of Bortolotti and others. Through Malmedy and Brussels corner. Kelvin van der Linde racy early doors. Through Jacky Ickx (Speaker's) corner. Down through Pouhon as Benji Goethe is going for it and so is Neil Verhagen. The Jota McLaren is off and on and now Sandy Mitchell is also wriggling through the Piff Paff, also called Fangnes. Curb Paul Frere, known as Stavelot before. More side by side racing.
All these cars are GT3 cars and the classes are based on the driver ratings. This race is for GT World Challenge Europe and for Intercontinental GT Challenge. Down the hill again and we have one lap done and dusted. Klaus Bachler jumps Raffaele Marciello but you know that Marciello is going to be pushing like crazy. They stream back up the hill. Three wide between Ezequiel Perez Companc and Loris Spinelli both in the Mercedes AMG GT3's ahead of Nicolas Baert in one of the Audi's. Down from Brussels into the next corner and we see track limit warnings already. Jeepers creepers. We'll fuss with that stuff later.
Klaus Bachler is now still leading the motor race early doors as Raffaele Marciello runs second. We thought there'd be shemozzle on lap one but it is clean as a whistle thus far. Luca Stolz chasing Mirko Bortolotti. We have a long, long, long way to go. Klaus Bachler, Raffaele Marciello, Mirko Bortolotti, and more. It is a traffic jam here at Spa Francorchamps as Augusto Farfus is right on Kelvin van der Linde's six right now. Bachler leads. Through Campus and Stavelot they come. Fabian Schiller in the Al Manar Racing Mercedes #777 leads Silver and chases Michael Christensen in the Martini sponsored Porsche.
They turn through La Source ready to get onto another lap. They stream over the top of Raidillon and onto the Kemmel straight. Sandy Mitchell in the Barwell Motorsports Lamborghini leads Gold Cup over Lucas Auer in the #57 Winward Racing Mercedes AMG GT3. Everyone runs single file at this time through Pouhon again. Alessio Picariello leads in Pro-Am in the #24 Porsche for Herberth Motorsport. So many shapes, sizes, and sounds of these cars in GT3. Absolutely amazing. Loris Spinelli in the Sky Tempesta Mercedes clatters the curbs. Just ten minutes done and dusted. #100 is the Toksport WRT Porsche of Sven Mueller chasing after Giacomo Altoe's Lamborghini through Speaker's corner. No dramas for four laps.
Kelvin van der Linde 14th, the #32 WRT Audi in the hands of the South African. van der Linde chasing down Sven Mueller. Staying on the lead lap in this race is a key deal. If you drop behind you are in king size trouble. Bachler, Marciello, Bortolotti, Stolz, Haase, the top five. Points scored at six hours, 12 hours, and 24 hours. Sandy Mitchell, 24th in the overall and he has gone by Neil Verhagen's BMW M4 GT3. It is a game of follow my leader so far. 15 minutes on the board already and we've been clean and green. The Balance of Performance seems to be working. Ricardo Feller closing up on Michael Christensen as Klaus Bachler leads but just by barely a second, trying to move ahead of Raffaele Marciello. We should look for pit stops once the hour is completed as they stream into Les Combes.
Ricardo Feller wants by Michael Christensen. Remember, 66 cars started this race. Mirko Bortolotti has now dropped back behind Raffaele Marciello as we keep following the leaders. Bortolotti has Stolz breathing down his exhaust pipes. Fred Schandorff fastest in the #7 Inception Racing McLaren fastest in Eau Rouge at 247 kilometers an hour, about 150 miles an hour. That is fast! These are roadgoing supercars that are modified to race. Raffaele Marciello wants to push just ahead of Mirko Bortolotti and now, Jordan Pepper is gaining, but he is having a hard time. He is 28th in the overall. How are the Pirelli tires responding? That is something to keep in mind. Bachler leading Marciello, Bortolotti, Luca Stolz, Christopher Haase, Michael Christensen, Ricardo Feller, Fabian Schiller, and more. Augusti Farfus being harried by Nicki Thiim. BMW M4 GT3 vs. Aston Martin Vantage GT3.
Through Brussels corner and down the hill. Bachler leads by 6/10ths of a second and someone kicks up dust into the corner. From Pouhon to Fangnes and continuing downhill. Christopher Mies wants to pass both these cars. He thinks, can I kill two birds with one stone? 20 minutes, nine laps on the board. Cars nose to tail into La Source. Thiim is in position to go for a pass on Farfus through Eau Rouge and Raidillon and into Les Combes. Not quite. Oh dear! Nigel Bailly is off the road at Campus in the #107 Bentley Continental GT3! Dear me. The car is buried in the gravel trap. Bailly is OK and back on track. He was hurt in a motocross accident but now has the opportunity to drive.
Raffaele Marciello is now trying hard to pass but he cant get by. Antonio Fuoco in tenth, chasing Maximilian Buhk. Ferrari chasing Mercedes. Iron Lynx were off the pace in the pole shootout yesterday and so they will be playing the long game. But he splits the Bentley, three wide! Shades of Mika Hakkinen and Michael Schumacher in Formula 1. Maxi Buhk trying to pass Fabian Schiller! Yikes! Those to Mercedes' are right together through Speaker's corner! Holy mackerel! You also have Nicklas Nielsen in the sister Iron Lynx Ferrari and we saw that Nigel Bailly was tagged by the SunEnergy1 Mercedes of Kenny Habul but Bailly got the car going under it's own steam. Bailly still has gravel all over his tires, though.
A bit of debris on the road, look, through the last turn. Benji Goethe wants by Christopher Mies. He knows he can make a pass. Audi on Audi. These first laps have been conservative, but now everyone is getting their elbows out. Mies vs. Goethe! Audi on Audi! Wow! Mies though is now falling into the clutches of Matty Campbell in the #74 Porsche, the EMA car! He makes his move. Mies can't quite make it. Ross Gunn in the Aston Martin next up. Gunn I believe in The Heart of Racing Aston Martin entry running with TF Sport, with Tom Ferrier's team. Incident between Habul and Bailly under investigation. Nick Tandy, 276 clicks down the Kemmel straight. Habul did tap Nigel Bailly. He was rudely shoved. That was a bit of hip and shoulder, mate.
Jean Baptiste Moulin is chasing Sebastien Baud in one of the Mercedes' a pink Mercedes, the "Pink Panther". Speaking of Mercedes, we ride along with Loris Spinelli who lifts through Eau Rouge and the splitter kisses the pavement, leaping out of Raidillon uphill to Les Combes, late on the brakes. That carbon fiber splitter, whacking against the tarmac. #563, Michele Beretta in the Vincenzo Sospiri Racing car. Beretta has run GT and prototypes in European Le Mans Series racing. Jordan Pepper, still pushing like crazy. He is still stuck in traffic. Nico Muller at the controls of the #46 Audi for Team WRT and he will hand over to Valentino Rossi, the multiple MotoGP and 500cc motorcycle Grand Prix champion. "The Doctor" will get his stint, soon. Augusto Farfus is the cork in the bottle with a ton of other cars beginning to line up.
Farfus is the rabbit, and the rest of this group is a pack of hungry wolves. Through Fangnes, Matty Campbell wants by Benji Goethe. Through Stavelot, don't run too far out of that corner down thr straight. Campbell just can't get past Goethe who has a loose Audi right now. They fly out of the chicane. We have had a very calm hour one here but now, the #4 Mercedes spins! Hit me in the face with a cream pie! I jinxed it. Janus Fittje spins off and Loris Spinelli is iprving. Fiitje is fine but has a slow, lazy spin. Fittje vs. Spinelli, look, and Spinelli just taps his fellow Mercedes AMG competitor. The lead gap hovering around. Marciello getting racy into Campus.
Through Paul Frere corner. 15 laps down and many more to go. Get the read on the fuel. Oh no. Puncture on the left rear of the #77 Barwell Motorsports Lamborghini with Sandy Mitchell. Left rear tire, gone. That Pirelli P Zero is flat as a pancake. Oh my, oh my. Marciello decides it is go time and into Les Combes, he is closing on Bachler who has traffic ahead. Through Speaker's corner, now called Jacky Ickx corner, a true legend in Formula One and sports cars. A backmarker, that is Don Yount in one of the Walkenhorst BMW M4 GT3's. It is. That is the #35, Yount sharing with Henry Walkenhorst, Theo Overhaus, and Jorg Breuer.
Bortolotti is beginning to close back up on Marciello. Marciello wriggles his way through Raidillon and are the tires beginning to get knackered already? Christopher Haase fifth in one of the Aud's as Sandy Mitchell gets a new tire and the team is checking the car. Thank goodness there is very little damage on that car. Drop it off the air jacks and get back in the race. Mirko Bortolotti is now pressing Raffaele Marciello. They pass the Porsche of Stephen Grove, the Australian. Luca Stolz is fourth followed by Christopher Haase and Michael Christensen who is losing time in his Porsche. The pit crews monitor the data and the pace of their opposition as well.
Traffic giveth. Traffic taketh away. 18 laps done and dusted. Nikki Thiim has moved by Augusto Farfus and is whistling off into the distance. Mirko Bortolotti sees his chances coming to him when this hour ends. Pit stops will be critical. Do not lose time. Porsche leads the way here at Spa so far. Stay tuned. This is only the beginning. There is a long, long, long way to go. Sandy Mitchell has handed the Lambo over to Alex MacDowall. He is not sure how the tire punctured on car #77. They were knocking on the door of the top 20. So, they will have to stay clean and play catch up. They have time to keep going for it.
Fabian Schiller still leads Silver in ninth spot aboard the #777 Mercedes AMG GT3. Team manager of the #75 SunEnergy1 Mercedes report to the stewards immediately. They would like a word. No tea and biscuits for you, mate. Fabian Schiller leads Silver over Benjamin Goethe. Trouble, in limp home mode, with a puncture for Ricardo Feller in the Audi. This is the #66 Attempto Audi on the right rear. Feller sharing with Markus Winkelhock and Dennis Marschall. Right rear tire gone. Oh dear. Out of Blanchimont, the #16 Grove Racing Porsche, the Earl Bamber Motorsports entry actually.
Stephen Grove sharing with Brenton Grove, Adrien D'Silva and Matthew Payne. He was way off in the gravel trap. Bachler and Marciello have eked out a gap on Mirko Bortolotti. Driver changes are imminent. New boots for Ricky Feller. Fuel and tires, but trouble for the right rear. Nico Muller is racing ahead of one of the McLaren's and behind the Winward Mercedes. Mirko Bortolotti now has a tire go down too! Thank heavens he was right near the lane! Better to be lucky than good. Get in there slowly, but then change that tire and regroup.
Three cars into one turn won't work. It never does. Gravel might be to blame for these punctures and now, Chris Haase from fourth spot has a left rear tire down! The tires are getting hot and that gravel is causing these rear Pirelli P Zero's to shred, and there is just too much camber on the rear tires. More camber helps but it hinders the tire durability. 21 laps done and dusted. Michael Christensen gains a couple of places. Alessio Picreillo, the Belgian, is leading Pro-Am in the #24 Porsche. Loris Spinelli continues chasing Michele Beretta as Jordan Pepper has now moved to 22nd spot. Spinelli knows he has to back off a tad over the top of Raidillon. Into Les Combes, the Mercedes lost some ground. Oh no. More tire trouble for the #23 Heart of Racing TF Sport Aston, left rear I believe. The rear tires give up because of the rear being farther to the outside of the road than the front.
Lucas Auer now leads Gold Cup after Alex MacDowall takes over the Lambo we talked about earlier. The clag, the rolled up rubber is starting to collect on track. Many of these punctures are happening at the end of sector one. Mies and Konsta Lappalainen are in the pit lane. Jack Aitken is back after a big wreck last year. He says that everyone is suffering from the gravel and the cars are lapping faster which means higher corner loads. Debris on the road may be the culprit but we also see shoulder failures of the tires. Too much track limits abuse, maybe. Five second time penalty at the next pit stop for the #75 causing a collision with car #107. So, that is the Nigel Bailly Bentley and the Kenny Habul Mercedes.
We have punctures and penalties. All the craziness we expected has kicked off. Klaus Bachler laps the #14 Lamborghini which Konsta Lappalainen was driving and he still is. He is a lap down. Audi #32, Kelvin van der Linde in the lane. New tires on the car. Tire preservation a big deal and we could see double stints for the drivers at this stage. Marciello catching up to Bachler but he cannot pass. Stuart White, the South African, takes over the #14 Emil Frey Racing Lambo. Balance of Performance has equaled the performance of the cars, but the downside is that cars cannot pass as easily. Bachler followed by Marciello still and Stuart White will get his place back when the leader's pit. Tim Muller is the Bronze class leader.
50th overall for the #20 SPS Automotive Performance Mercedes AMG GT3. Tim Muller behind Bugatti Shoes. Tim Muller sharing with Rema Juffali, George Kurtz, and Valentin Pierburg. Kelvin van der Linde has made a pit stop and is falling dowjn the order as we see the scrap continue between Marciello and Bachler who are headed for the pit lane for the first time of asking. WRT reduced their camber by 10%. Kelvin van der Linde under investigation for speeding in the pit lane. Let's see where we are on that. van der Linde is down the order in 48th spot. You have to just not have penalties. Set your limiter down a click an hour or something so you don't have to futz with a penalty.
Marciello still second ahead of Luca Stolz and Michael Christensen in the Martini liveried Porsche. Stolz behind Ross Gunn who is a lap down. We are coming to the end of hour one. Altoe, Spinelli, Kjaergaard and more in the lane. Driver change at Sky Tempesta Racing as Eddie Cheever III. replaces Loris Spinelli.
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