We go to safety car conditions as Maximilian Gotz leads the motor race, 49 laps in. Gotz, Juncadella, Lietz, Preining, Serra, the top five. We are indeed under safety car conditions. Safety car will remain on track for three laps. The Pirelli P Zero tires will be back up to temperature and that is why we are running behind the safety car so the tires don't drop temperature and become stone cold. Safety cars breed safety cars. Everyone has to be careful. Thomas Preining had to be brought in when Dinamic Motorsports regular had to step down after becoming ill with the virus I believe. Some teams have probably gotten their strategies locked in and the team boss for the #188 McLaren has to meet with the stewards. Again, have a word, sign the paperwork, and no tea and biscuits for you. Sorry.
Jens Liebhauser is dropping like a stone after being caught up in the gravel trap for two laps. 50 laps now completed as the #47 KCMG Porsche is moving up, Laurens Vanthoor now at the wheel of it with two former race winners, Nick Tandy, and Laurens Vanthoor of course, also sharing with Dennis Olsen, the Norwegian. Nick Tandy says his stint was a fun one. They know to be careful and expected Full Course Yellows and safety car scrambles to come earlier. No damage or penalties. They are keeping their noses clean but the Porsche is very difficult to drive in traffic. Things might ease off overnight and then will ramp up again in A.M. hours on Sunday.
Nicolas Gomar, the Frenchman is making his debut at Spa in the 24 Hours for the #8 AGS Events Lamborghini and he says in his first race, he feels tons of pressure and wants to be part of the history of this great race. He has been in French GT and Lamborghini Super Trofeo sharing with Ruben del Sarte of Holland, and fellow Frenchman Loris Cabirou and Mike Parisy. In the 1980s, Nico Gomar's dad raced Formula First, an open wheel series. A spin under the safety car and damage, and that is Antares Au in the #9 Porsche! Oh dear! He is crawling, and he got t boned by the #93 Sky Tempesta Mercedes under a safety car! That is craziness! That was pure driver error on Jonathan Hui's part. We cannot blame him.
Au sharing with Kevin Tse, Jaxon Evans, and Dylan Pereira for Herberth Motorsport. Au from Hong Kong, Evans from New Zealand, Dylan Pereira of Luxembourg, and Kevin Tse. We are back to green and Maximilian Gotz will be building his lead again. Samantha Tan must be aware Daniel Serra is there, chasing Thomas Preining. 53 laps on the board and the field is bunched back together as Daniel Serra is pushing and I don't have to tell you, hard. Richard Lietz has Preining all over him. Yellow flag in sector two with an Audi off at the exit of Les Combes. That is Ulysse de Pauw as Richard Lietz is pushing one of the Mercedes AMG GT3's and Thomas Preining has the intent. Lietz is feeling the pressure! ANother car off, that is Isaac Tutumlu Lopez in the #27 Lambo! Good grief! Everything is returning to normal at Spa.
The walking wounded are out there. Full Course Yellow number two! Good grief! Everyone now single file. We welcome Martin Haven to the booth and he will be with us in the overnight hours. This is classic after a safety car. Drops in temperature and the mind drops off a wee bit and it all goes mad! Two more cars to retrieve. Nicolas Baert says that is racing, and it's the risk of the 24 Hours of Spa. Tire degradation probably forced Cesar Gazeau into a mistake and that is why the Sainteloc Audi retired. Retirement paperwork had written on it, accident, huge. With gravel traps, cars stop while with tarmac, they keep moving. Safety car procedure. After the official witching hour at 11PM we are going to go much quicker to safety car in the dark.
Isaac Tutumlu Lopez is now back in the motor race. Safety car in this lap so we are set to go back to green. Ulysse De Pauw's Audi is now in the garage and has to have all the gravel cleaned out and repairs. Tiny drops of water in the pit lane were just spritzes of rain. We might see fog in the wee hours of the morning. It should stay dry for this race, but you never know in the microclimate of the Ardennes forest. Maxi Buhk leads Raffaele Marciello, Richard Lietz, and Thomas Preining. Preining tries making a move but Lietz holds him off. We need a chart for most penalties per car and another penalty for the #188 Garage 59 McLaren for shoulder charging the #57 Mercedes off the road. Dries Vanthoor pulls the pin and he is going to go for it. Big dive for Patric Niederhauser and the Audi boys are starting to come alive!
Preining is really pushing again now. The sun is brigthening but the temperatures are dropping a wee bit. Daniel Serra makes his move on the Audi, and he is a star Ferrari driver and ex Aston Martin ace as well in GTE and GT3. Marvin Dienst, in the #100 Porsche, a handy Porsche driver who drove Formula 4 open wheel cars as well. Rob Bell now is behind Mikael Grenier as well. That is ninth and tenth place. Grenier in one of the Mercedes' and Bell in a McLaren 720S GT3. The Beechdean Aston Martin has spun, the #97 Silver Cup ranked car of Frenchman Theo Nouet. Full Course Yellow, again. They are dropping like London buses. Nouet has nosed it into the barrier and the #777 Mercedes of Al Faisal Al Zubair has his bonnet up and he can't see a thing!
Big damage on #777. Big damage! Now, he smashed into the Allied Racing Porsche! Jeepers creepers! The Porsche is going to have exhaust damage and damage on the floor. Come in and top up on petrol. Porsche #74 has a bent exhaust. Matthieu Jaminet now in that car having taken over from Matt Campbell and Felipe Nasr is the third driver. The #188 McLaren, NO (in uppercase letters) radio. Dean MacDonald has taken over from Henrique Chaves and the other drivers in that car are Alexander West and Miguel Ramos. Valentino Rossi is doing a double stint in the #46 WRT Audi. In replay, bang! It was the #91 Allied Racing Porsche that got biffed.
Alex Malykhin, sharing with Julien Apotheloz, Florian Latorre, and Ayhacan Guven. Alex Riberas in the #23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin, has seen a rough race thus far. When Ross Gunn was driving he had a puncture, two punctures, caboose on the field. There was a melee on the restart through Fangnes. Everyone had to slam on the brakes. So, Heart of Racing in the garage for repairs. The mechanics deserve all the credit. It is disheartening to start the race off with an accident as we are just 1/8th of the way through. Isaac Tutumlu Lopez spun and then Hugo Delacour in the #21 Ferrari clattered into the back of the Aston Martin. That is the #21 entry for Hugo Delacour, Cedric Sbirrazuoli, Alessandro Balzan, and David Perel.
Sky Tempesta Racing team boss summoned to the stewards plus we have a handful of penalties. At the end of the endurance pits is the stoplight and red means stop in the pit lane just as it does on the street. Red means stop, green means go, and so the traffic cops will still give you a ticket, a drive through penalty. Speed up under the safety car. Green flag back in the air. A dive through traffic by both Dani Juncadella and Thomas Preining. Arnold Robin is now in the Audi that we saw in the gravel earlier with Ulysse de Pauw. Narciello is clearly struggling on cold tires while the Porsche has grip into Rivage/Bruxelles. Speaker's Corner/Jacky Ickx curve next. Daniel Juncadella is in the Mercedes, beg your pardon.
Daniel Serra has Patric Niederhauser in the Audi next up. Niederhauser who starred in the ending of the 2020 Spa 24, he is really pushing. These blokes are really aggressive over the curbs. Daniel Serra chops across Niederhauser's nose. Next up is Marvin Dienst in the #100 Porsche. Andrea Caldarelli is flying and so is Rob Bell! Rob Bell took his bravery pills this morning. Do not impede or hit your team mate. Niederhauser still lurking as the two Emil Frey Racing Lamborghini's are laps down but scrapping with each other. That's nerve racking. Dries Vanthoor has fallen to 18th spot. He has done three pit stops and had to do an extra fuel stop somehow or other.
Two rules of endurance racing are track position, stay on the lead lap at all costs, and never miss the opportunity to fuel up and have a full tank of petrol. The #93 Sky Tempesta Racing Mercedes is off the road again and poor old Jonathan Hui must be pulling his hair out. Dies Vanthoor has passed Tuomas Tujula in one of the Emil Frey Racing Lamborghini's. Track remains green as Hui is back on his way. The lack of lighting is going to make night driving hard with all the gravel scattered around the circuit. The line will narrow up especially in Fangnes corner, now called Piff Paff of course. Through Blanchimont, Rob Bell is having a tough old time with traffic inside of Arnold Robin's Audi. Dani Juncadella uncorks the fastest lap of the motor race.
Drive through penalty to Hui for causing a collision. So things go from bad to worse for Sky Tempesta Racing. The #9 Porsche is ten laps down, now with Jaxon Evans at the wheel. The #66 Audi for Attempto has also been penalized. Laurens Vanthoor in 12th place, in the #47 KCMG Porsche, he started 63rd overall and has gained 51 places! Holy cow! Hui driving through the lane for his penalty. He will be steaming in more ways than one. Giacomo Altoe being harried by James Calado, Matthieu Jaminet, and Vanthoor and "Jam Jam" is racing Calado. Side by side right on the wall and Calado makes the move into Eau Rouge!
Laurens Vanthoor gets a tow and Jaminet screams past Calado and going off the road is the Porsche and he will have to give the advantage back to Calado where he can immediately pounce on the Ferrari again. Pull over. Calado gets tagged and he will be annoyed. Don't tag me giving a place back! Everyone else is stacked up in the queue behind. Each car makes their lap time differently. Some will have better top speed, better braking, or better cornering. Patric Niederhauser is in the same car he shares with Christopher Mies. Calado, foot to the floor, totally comitted and Laurens Vanthoor is on the scene. Through the dip at Eau Rouge, it is much smoother and that gigantic bump is totally gone so the car does not snap sidways.
Stefan Constantini in the #52 AF Corse Ferrari spun off the road and then recovered. Richard Lietz in the #221 Porsche is down in 26th in the GPX Porsche. He has been forced to make yet another pit stop. He lost far less physical track position than he would have. Use safety cars to your advantage. GPX and WRT both elected to make an extra pit stop. There's things these teams know that peons like me have no clue of. What is the best way the fling the ball? What is the best way to skin a cat? Another spin for the Bentley. Tail enders are beginning to pit including Michael Dornbecker and Tuomas Tujula. The low sun might be why drivers do not see the stoplight at the bottom of the pit lane as the sun sets here at Spa Francorchamps and the shadows grow long, but you have an oily windscreen splattered with bugs and debris and all matter of junk.
There's still time to have skin in the game here. The top three cars are in the lane including the #2 leading Mercedes AMG GT3. Karrim Ojjeh in the lane too in the #10 car. Daniel Serra, Marco Sorensen, Dries Vanthoor, and more. #10 is the Boutsen Ginion Audi R8. WRT at the top and GetSpeed at the bottom of the lane. Same for Akkodis ASP. Richard Lietz is still on track looking for track position. Nick Yelloly in the #98 Rowe Racing BMW M4 GT3 dropped from 11th to 23rd spot.
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