As a commentator, you need as many eyes as you can get especially at night. Maxime Martin's BMW has been missing arear wing end plate for a wee while now. That was from the incident we saw earlier with the #16 car. Race leader in the lane and the #8 AGS Events Lamborghini has retired. For Antonin Borga and company, it is game over. The doors are down and the team's lips are sealed. It wasn't a fuel issue. It was something else. Full Course Yellow at Campus and the final Iron Lynx car, the #19 Lamborghini Huracan is in trouble. Michele Beretta is at the wheel of it. He shares that car with Rolf Ineichen and Leonardo Pulcini.
Full Course Yellow and now wholesale pit stops are upon us. Boguslavskiy will be in. Laurens Vanthoor overshoots his pit box. This is going to be a busy pit lane. Marco Wittmann, Laurens Vanthoor, Jules Gounon, and more. Maxime Martin and Gilles Magnus are in the lane. Magnus made his World Touring Car debut with Comtoyou Racing moving from TCR into GT3. Damoe; Serra. Nicklas Kruetten, Nicklas Nielsen, Maxime Martin. The Manitou crane is going to fetch the car out of the gravel trap, the Michele Beretta Lamborghini.
Chaz Mostert leading Pro/Am. Here comes the tractor with the fan blower or jet blower on the front of it to get rid of the debris between Fangnes and Campus. Just like highway maintenance. Christian Engelhart and Ben Barker both in at Dinamic Huber Racing and poor old Ben Barker has been languishing down in 39th place. We have seen his co-drivers, Marius Nakken, Christopher Zoechling, and Phillip Saiger. The Dinamic Porsche is now in the garage fixing the diffuser. It is a refuser, not a diffuser, but it should acquiesce. Dennis Olsen now into the lane along with Daniel Juncadella. Luca Stolz stays out and Sam De Haan is also in pit lane.
We have a safety car on the road to retrieve the #19 Lamborghini. Can Luca Stolz outfox Christian Engelhart? Maximilian Buhk spins and then tags Christian Engelhart! Luca Stolz made the contact and he is now back in the race but way down. Mattia Drudi now leads the race and Franck Perera has now gone to second spot. That is a strange mistake from Maxi Gotz. I want to say he was given a love tap there. Kelvin vander Linde makes his move on Dennis Olsen. Mattia Drudi leads the race. Hard to tell but I think Luca Stolz did punt Christian Engelhart into the spin.
Mattia Drudi is pulling the pin. Luca Stolz does have damage on the left front corner. Kelvin van der Linde, Frank Perera, Dennis Olsen, Marco Wittmann, Jules Gounon, and more. Laurens Vanthoor, Jules Gounon, Marco Wittmann, Tom Gamble, among others. The battle fr second spot is between Luca Stolz and Kelvin van der Linde. Daniel Juncadella has dropped like a stone and lost six places down to 12th. Blanchimont is where we have seen drivers get pinged for track limits and meanwhile, we can see that the battle is really heating up.
Kelvin van der Linde passes Luca Stolz. Chaz Mostert ahead of Laurens Vanthoor and now, Luca Stolz is ahead of Frank Perera who is ahead of Dennis Olsen. Olsen is fifth and was third on the restart. Frank Perera might have the legs here. Mattia Drudi though, he has shot from a cannon and is seven seconds to the good over everyone else. All these cars are in one single class. They are battling with different driver lineup categories but every car is a GT3 car.
Luca Stolz has no headlamps on. I wonder if he lost power to those lights after his contact with Christian Engelhart. Chaz Mostert is doing very well in a GT3 car. There is parity in Australian Supercars as well as he has experience there and so does someone like Anton De Pasquale. Jeffrey Schmitt closing up on the Garage 59 #188 McLaren leading in the Bronze division but has tumbled down to 43rd place somehow or other. I have no idea why. Miguel Ramos at the wheel of it, the Portuguese driver st the controls sharing with Louis Prette and Conrad Grunewald.
Robert Renauer leads Bronze in the #91 Herberth Motorsport Porsche. The Balance of Performance on these cars gives them the same performance at each track, but Mattia Drudi's gap has now ballooned to seven and a half seconds! Unreal! Rear end damage now to the #93 Sky Tempesta McLaren. Luca Stolz is third in the #777 Al Manar Racing Mercedes and the team managers of both Al Manar and one of the other Mercedes' to the stewards' office immediately. They will have replays available and data on the cars.
Chaz Mostert is holding up Luca Stolz I believe. Chaz Mostert is ahead of Erwin Creed in the #888 CSA Racing Audi. More flashing lights, look, as Christopher Haase for Comtoyou Racing is moving up. Maxi Gotz has been in the pit lane for ten minutes. Something is wrong with the #87 Akkodis ASP Mercedes that has plunged to 43rd out of 53 cars remaining of the 70 starters, so, 17 have officially retired. Mercedes to the lane for service for the #777 with damage on the left front corner. Just leave it and then at a Full Course Yellow you can get a new nose on the car I think. The car will understeer and you'll have tire wear like crazy.
Dennis Olsen, Jules Gounon, and Laurens Vanthoor, and then comes Marco Wittmann who is getting feisty followed by Maxime Martin and Dani Juncadella. The field is packed together and there is nothing in it. Chaz Mostert is out of sequence. He is down in 34th overall leading in the Pro-Am class. Many drivers are complaining to the stewards, put the blue flag out for Mostert! Please! The damaged radiator will cause the #87 Akkodis ASP Mercedes to retire from the race. Game over. 52 cars still in the event. 18 cars are out. Lorenzo Patrese for Tresor Orange1 leads in the Silver division.
What will we see happen to the #88 Akkodis ASP Mercedes? They toughed it out without pitting and are down the order a bit. Franck Perera eking out a gap on Laurens Vanthoor. The timing screens I dont think have updated. Lorenzo Patrese is 3.8 seconds to the good over Sam DeJonghe and then Glenn van Berlo. Marco Wittmann chasing Jules Gounon into La Source as Franck Perera makes a pit stop. We still have nine hours of racing left ending this race at 4:30 P.M. local time, and about 9:30 A.M. later this morning.
Anyone in the top dozen could win this race. This 24 Hours of Spa is incredibly competitive in what is something like my 12th or 13th year following this race. It's incredible. One tiny incident and you can lose time or be out of the motor race right on the spot. Now we see Jules Gounon right on Laurens Vanthoor's six. The #66 Attempto Racing Audi of Aleksandr Mukovoz is passes. Andre Mukovoz, excuse me. Audi, Audi, Porsche, Porsche, Mercedes, BMW, the top six. A good spread of cars, all German sports cars. This is the first time in the race I can think of that one driver in one car has had an enhanced car, and I think that is Mattia Drudi and his great driving.
He is adding time to the lead of the motor race. What on earth did he eat for breakfast?! Maybe he has eaten a superhero cake or something.
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