We have seen more woe for the #46 Audi and now, Matty Jaminet is in the lane at the end of 374 laps. Laurens Vanthoor is now going for the lane. Vanthoor as we said is not dealing with traffic but he needs to slow down to look after the tires. The BMW has had more time in the lane but leads in real terms. Porsche into the lane after 375 laps. WRT Audi #46 under investigation for causing a collision. WRT have had a lousy race at Spa in 2022. This is one they'll erase from their memory bank. So, Nick Yelloly is still your race leader in the Rowe Racing BMW M4 GT3. 378 laps, the #51 Ferrari and poor old Richard Heistand has just gone straight on at Campus, missing the braking point, understeering into the wall and he will be buried. Full Course Yellow, again. The K-PAX Racing Lamborghini #6 also spun with a punctured tire for Marco Mapelli. Full Course Yellow and safety car #12.
The BMW Junior team pits and so will the #55 Mercedes for AMG Team GruppeM. Yelloly and Marciello in sector two through the exit of Pouhon. Dennis Olsen spent four laps on track and is short stopping to save refueling time. #47 will lose track position. Fred Vervisch under investigation for causing a collision and the #93 Mercedes is rumbling slowly on the road. James Calado has handed the #51 Iron Lynx Ferrari to Nicklas Nielsen. Reigning champion Nicklas Nielsen at the controls, a discussion with the team manager about track limits. Calado said he misjudged them.
Keep the car on the road. Ferrari have had one lap pace but James Calado is just not confident Ferrari can defend their win from this race last year. Car #31, the Silver Cup car from Team WRT, collecting 45 seconds of penalties for eight track limit warnings. This Full Course Yellow will be a strategy reset. No gains and no losses yet. Mercedes #88 in the heritage portion of the pit lane. Teams always stay in the same spots where they want to be. The Porsche's and the McLarens at the bottom, Porsche in the middle of the heritage pits and WRT in the F1 pits on the top.
So, Nick Yelloly has finished a stint and he says that they are back on their strategy for sure. Just over six and a half hours to go. Spa has it's own microclimate like the Nurburgring and can do what it wants when it wants. So, will we have raindrops before the end of this race? I wonder. Within the vicinity of Spa Francorchamps, we could see rain before the end of the race. Will it be a deluge or will it be misty and spritzy? The race has barely even begun just yet. Niki Leutwiler leads Pro-Am for Herberth Motorsports. We'll be into a sprint race for this one pretty soon.
Traditionally Audi have run in the top six or so in the last decade. This year that is not the case. Thomas Neubauer leading Silver Cup but he is outside the top ten. It is a legacy of WRT being very unlucky in 2022. We go into safety car conditions to speed up and catch the safety car crocodile. B,W should be leading Mercedes for sure and the safety car does pick up the #98 car at the head of the queue. Richard Heistand is stil, trundling the BMW #34 back to the lane with big damage. Andrea Bertolini now runs third in Pro-Am in Ferrari #52 for AF Corse.
The safety car does not wait for everyone to bunch up before the release. Bring up the temperatures and the speeds after Full Course Yellow. Same old scenario. Get the brake temp and the tire temp up, and ride the brake pedal to get temps into the brake discs and pads. We have had a couple hours since the most recent Full Course Yellow. The safety car lights remain on. BMW leads Mercedes and Porsche. Safety car in this lap. Loads of traffic to deal with. Matt Campbell has not even caught up to the queue.
Tire clag all to the outside of Eau Rouge. Nicky Catsburg will take control of the race at the green flag. There are cars way down that will never catch the back of the queue including the #71 Iron Lynx Ferrari which is behind on the Kemmel straight. Antonio Fuoco is 11th overall. He is a very capable driver. He did a great lap in pre-qualifying at 2:16.4. Fuoco is the final car on the lead lap. Green flag. We're racing again at Spa with just over six and a half hours to go. Catsburg leads by 2.9 seconds over Dani Juncadella and they pass by Dean MacDonald, or at least Juncadella does.
Thomas Neubauer leading for Audi in 13th place. Unreal. Juncadella hopes Neubauer will give him room. Dennis Olsen in traffic. He is six seconds away from the leader. Mikael Grenier dives inside behind the BMW Junior Team M4 GT3 of Max Hesse. Grenier should move ahead of the BMW. Dennis Olsen is now third. Max Hesse to third as Nicky Catsburg leads the motor race, still. Grenier is next up with Matty Campbell behind who is on a different strategy, an off strategy to the leaders. Grenier clears the SPS Automotive Performance #20 Mercedes as well. Marco Mapelli is a lap down. Catsburg leads Juncadella and Olsen.
Matt Campbell needs to push and get on terms with everyone else. Campbell needs and gets cooperation from the #22 Allied Racing Porsche of Dominik Fischli. Another Porsche off into the gravel and that is Niki Leutwiler in the #24 Herberth Motorsport Porsche. Leutwiler gets tagged by the Lamborghini from Emil Frey Racing. Front wheel to front wheel contact there. Fischli should have known he was there. We should perhaps see yet another Full Course Yellow, to remove the car from Campus. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Full Course Yellow, now. Once again? Ugh. The cars will be packed up again and let's hope we can get a quick extraction like getting your teeth pulled at the dentist.
Arthur Rougier cannot do a Houdini and vanish. Dean MacDonald retakes the lead in Pro-Am. Poor Nikki Leutwiler as he is swallowing a bitter pill right now. Dean MacDonald ought to be in the pound seats at least briefly. Dennis Olsen in third spot, 8.9 seconds behind the #88 Mercedes of Dani Juncadella, who is 2.6 seconds down on Nicky Catsburg. Thomas Neubauer in 13th spot leading Pro-Am and the Audi contingent ahead of Marius Zug in a similar car at Attempto Racing. Max Hesse has now changed strategies once more.
BMW #50 comes out of the pit lane and resets their drive time again for Max Hesse. He might have had some issue. Who knows. The strategy nerds are punching and crunching numbers into their computers to go for another hour of racing. We are going to be into the final quarter of the race very soon. These final six hours will be a real mystery indeed. Again, without the corner workers, we could never have these races. A lot of British marshals are here to be a part of an international event. Someone in the parking lot has a Peugeot 205 convertible. Never mind. That is a Volkswagen Polo. Wow. OK. Safety car procedure.
Dani Juncadella is now right behind Nikki Thiim. Dennis Olsen will be clearing the backmarkers, the lapped cars. Let's hope we can get some serious green flag racing with over six hours of the race still left. A lot of the principal front running cars are no longer running while many are completely out of position as Max Hesse has lost two places just ahead of Nicklas Nielsen who did the very same thing in Ferrari #51, and Matt Campbell did not pit under the most recent Full Course Yellow in the #74 EMA Porsche 911 GT3R. We will see a short safety car deployment as the Porsche will be retrieved to a safe zone.
Nikk Leutwiler back to the pit lane. Maro Engel says the strategy is playing out for his team in the Mercedes. BMW seem to be the biggest threar right now. Interesting thoughts in that the BMW has great straightaway speed. It is hard to find a clean overtaking spot as the #2 AMG Team Getspeed Mercedes pitted as did the #95 Beechdean Aston Martin and the #71 Iron Lynx Ferrari. Maxime Martin in the Aston and Antonio Fuoco the last car on the lead lap of 11 on the lead lap and Marco Mapelli in the K-PAX Lambo is the first car a lap down. Markus Winkelhock has a track limits penalty in the #66 Audi.
Can Juncadella get the jump on Catsburg? Green flag. Just over six hours to go. Catsburg is really pushing and here comes Dennis Olsen going after Thomas Neubauer. Dennis Olsen might have a difficult time making a pass. The BMW has the legs on the Mercedes up the Kemmel straightaway. Into Les Combes, and a yellow flag. Porsche #24 of Niki Leutwiler has lost the left rear wheel. You picked a fine time to leave me loose wheel. The wheel nut is gone. That is a fresh left rear Pirelli P Zero tire. Three wheels on me wagon. Dani Juncadella overruns the chicane. Miguel Ramos takes over the #188 McLaren. Casper Stevenson picks up a piece of paper on the #87 Akkodis ASP Mercedes, the final car on the track in 43rd place.
Arthur Rougier under investigation in one of the Emil Frey Racing Lambo's, the surviving car. Max Hesse and Matt Campbell battle but with traffic in between. Nicklas Nielsen in seventh overall as Max Hesse moves by Frederic Vervisch who is a couple laps down. Hesse is ten seconds down on the sister Rowe Racing BMW. Short refueling penalty for 40 seconds for the Emil Frey team. Oh dear. The two lead cars are up and gone. Ferrari #71, Antonio Fuoco, trying to pass Maxime Martin in the Aston Martin. They are scything their way as best as possible through the traffic. V8 vs. V8. The #93 Sky Tempesta Mercedes of Chris Froggatt makes a pass on one of the other BMW's.
Max Hesse telling traffic to move over as Nicklas Nielsen is all over him like el cheapo suito there. The pace of the pack is not as quick as Catsburg running by himself. Fuoco checking up on the throttle through Stavelot. Blanchimont is the big one on this side of the track. So much traffic to contend with. Wow. Chris Froggatt is keeping it together it seems. Maxime Martin stays tight into La Source. Dow the hill through Eau Rouge and back up the other side. Matt Campbell into the pit lane after 50 minutes in the #74 EMA Porsche. So he will go a lap down due to a green flag pit stop. We are closing in on the final quarter of the race as the battle rages between Maxime Martin and Antonio Fuoco.
The Porsche is put on the dollies and wheeled backwards to the garage. Not good. Flat tire and damaged rear bumper from contact. That is what it looks like. Marvin Kirchhofer in the #38 Jota McLaren who runs right behind Nicklas Nielsen. Nielsen is being boxed in by the #56 Porsche for Dinamic Motorsports and the #46 WRT Audi. Nielsen still stuck through Fangnes. The #74 Porsche up on the jack stands. Something around the rear is damaged, the suspension and other components and the back exhausts could have been impacted and would experience a real shock.
They are taking the undertray and the diffuser off at the rear of the car. Hard to see what is going on exactly. A bent exhaust system is hugely affecting on how the engine performs. Arthur Roguier is a lap down and he has a penalty perhaps in his future. The #31 Audi moves out of the way allowing Max Hesse and Arthur Rougier through. Juncadella and company at the front running in the 2:18-2:19 bracket. Matt Campbell says that the Porsche got hit from behind damaging the diffuser and they have a puncture now so they will have to retire the car, probably.
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