Game over at Inception Racing! They are out of this event. Now, in the traffic, Estre goes one way, Thiim going the other. This is a game of 4D chess. Get into your rival's head. This is wjhat these professional, factory drivers are so good at. Estre boxed in at Fangnes and the Iron Dames are fighting back and getting lapped by the leaders. Into Blanchimont, Thiim goes right, Estre commiting to the inside. He uses the traffic to his advantage. Wowzers. But at Inception Racing, it is a race to forget. Team boss Bas Leinders tells us they are out. They have filled out the retirement paperwork and turned in the driver logbook. They have an electric problem and it is game over.
Track limits penalties for the #51 AF Corse Ferrari, the #10 Boutsen VDS Audi, and the #23 Grove Racing Porsche. Adam Carroll is now back on track in the BMW. That is the #31 WRT BMW M4 GT3. No dice there. Estre gets chopped. That is not WRT. That is the Walkenhorst BMW #35. Sainteloc Junior Team #26, SunEnergy1 Mercedes and more have penalties imminent. Walkenhorst Motorsports, the #35 car has James Kell, Anders Buchardt, Bailey Voisin, and Thomas Neubauer. That is the team that won this race overall five years ago. Mad Panda Mercedes, WRT BMW, and bucketloads more cars have been assessed for track limit penalties on the exit of Blanchimont. Put a wall on the outside of the corner at Blanchimont.
The #64 HRT Mercedes and the Mad Panda Mercedes as have the #46 WRT BMW, the #93 Sky Tempesta McLaren, and the #8 AGS Events Lamborghini. Maybe, just maybe, we have missed the rain as we see hot air balloons hovering over the race track. This is going to be a tough night as the night conditions will be fabulous and we are going to see a lot going on now in twilight. 68 of the 70 cars that started still running. Kevin Estre has now run down Nikki Thiim once again. Ding, ding. Round three. Squeezed by the lapped Audi, Estre has to wiat as Thiim goes to the other side.
Estre could be confident enough to throw it inside at La Source, covering the outside. He wants the slingshot down the straightaway to Eau Rouge. I think he has to back out of it through Eau Rouge and the Audi might just have more grunt than the Porsche. 5.2 liter atmospheric V10 in the Audi and 4 liter atmospheric flat six in the Porsche. Estre was backed into a corner through the tightening apex. Estre has now lost a second to Thiim. Max Hesse goes by Jules Gounon and Laurin Heinrich passes Fabian Schiller. So the Mercedes AMG GT3's are not having the race they wanted to this point.
Thiim has been impeded by a lapped car, a Porsche of Antares Au. Au, the Turkish driver I believe but I am not sure which number that is. Estre in the draft of Antares Au. I think that is the #20 car. It is. Au is the fourth driver in the #20 Huber Motorsport Porsche that took pole and led early doors. Nikki Thiim leads over Kevin Estre. McLaren leads the Bronze division. In Gold, the battle is on between Jean Baptiste Simmenauer and David Schumacher. Finlay Hutchison in Silver has fallen way down to 45th place with Sam De Jonghe at the controls. He just pitted the car and has to climb back up after Finaly Hutchison had a wonderful drive in his stint.
The GRT Grasser #85 Lamborghini in the lane with Clemens Schmid at the wheel of it. We have had other cars in the lane as well as we continue watching the leaders. This is Thiim being harried again by Estre. At Spa you run up one side of the valley and then drop down again. Night signaling, all cars lights on. It is nighttime here at Spa Francorchamps. Stavelot is the lowest point and the highest point is Les Combes. The town of Stavelot has been replaced by the name Campus because of the tech school here, the technical college at the track.
I still call that corner Stavelot. You have the old circuit and names like Stavelot, Burnenville, and the Masta Kink which was fearsome! It is a pit stop frenzy now with Dries Vanthoor finishing his stint. Luca Engstler takes over the Audi. Dries Vanthoor, Max Hesse, Jules Gounon, and others, I think they are double stinting. Antonio Fuoco cycles back to the lead of the motor race. Augusto Farfus will take over the #46 WRT BMW from Valentino Rossi. Rossi must be steaming because of the penalty.
Augusto Farfus, the Brazilian who we have seen in IMSA in the GTP class for BMW with the M Hybrid, he is going to fly. Luca Engstler is in #17, Charles Weerts into the #32 BMW and we now have the #92 Porsche being driven by Julien Andlauer. Antonio Fuoco dives to the lane. Phillipp Eng now leading in the Rowe Racing BMW. Chris Froggatt is now aboard the #93 Sky Tempesta Racing McLaren. The windshield tearoffs are amazing to watch because when you tear off that sheet, it cleans your windscreen of all the oil, dust, grit and grime. The battle resumes into Bruxelles and now, Luca Engstler will have Julien Andlauer, the Frenchman, right up on his tail.
Muller, Grenier, and Shwartzman also pitted. Davide Rigon is in the #71 AF Corse Ferrari. Louis Prette does another stint at McLaren. Fred Makowiecki and Alex Malykhin woll be battling it out. Callan Williams leads Gold over Alberto di Folco, and Miklas Born. Alex Fontana leads Pro-Am over George Kurtz and then Adam Oseika, and Casper Stevenson. The light is fading and we'll have darkness soon. We are getting less natural light with all the clouds drifting across the track. It is a low layer of cloud. Andlauer not close enough just yet.
Did something fall off a car? A piece of bodywork has fallen off one of the cars. Hard to tell. I think the Audi is losing bodywork, the Scherer Audi! Oh dear! The left rear corner has shed the rear fender I think. That was also the rocker trim on the side. The plot doth thicken. Well, well, well. Andlauer and Engstler have to be circumspect. Don't go nuts. Are you allergic to them? Well, I hope not. Luca Engstler carving his way through the traffic. Eng has double stinted and now we see Andlauer and Engstler going for it. Marvin Kirchhofer and Frederic Vervisch have also done long stints. We have a race going down at a tremendous clip currently.
Valentino Rossi and company run 13th overall and of course Augusto Farfus is now at the wheel of the #46 WRT BMW. Rossi says things are very difficult with less grip through the fast corners and it is hard to go flat out without hitting the track limits. It is a long race and wait to get into the night now with Augusto Farfus driving. Farfus is really pushing and is on a charge as Phillip Eng's BMW ran a 2:20.6. Charles Weerts runs fourth and now, overlap almost into Les Combes. Andlauer is really going for it, giving it the stick.
Luca Engstler is in his first year of GT racing after open wheel and touring car racing. It is a big ask but he now needs to and is proving himself. He is capable, keeping Andlauer at bay and Charles Weerts is running well followed by Ricardo Feller and Neil Verhagen. Leader to the lane. Phillip Eng leads the Endurance Cup points and he will have to pit 20 minutes before the six hour mark. They won't be in the lead unless we have another Full Course Yellow and play another round of 52 pickup. Nick Yelloly now at the controls of the #98 Rowe Racing BMW. Neil Verhagen now right behind Ricardo Feller for position as we have another time penalty for the #85 Silver class leading Lambo with a 30 second pit lane penalty for track limits.
Track limits are avoidable. Julien Andlauer wants to go for the race lead and he cannot get past Luca Engstler for P1. Nick Yelloly has indeed taken over the #98 Rowe Racing BMW. The two cars flash past up the hill into Eau Rouge. Engstler defending well from Andlauer with Weerts and Feller next up. Feller is 18 and a half seconds now behind Weerts though and Neil Verhagen is closing in, fast. Louis Prette now runs tenth in the #188 Garage 59 McLaren as traffic stymies Andlauer a wee bit. 109 laps now completed. Prette leads the Bronze Cup class in tenth place.
He is chasing Lorenzo Ferrari I think and Alberto di Folco leads both Lorenzo Ferrari and more. In Pro-Am, well, we'll have to see what the order is. Julien Andlauer taking the Manthey EMA Porsche into the darkness. It is still decently lit outside but it feels darker and Engstler goes up the curb and he is going to potentially get mugged by Andlauer! Not this time. Engstler passes the lapped Ferrari. That is the 488 GT3 model I believe. The margin is just a tenth of a second. Engstler is in front of Andlauer. He cannot find the room to get by.
Andlauer goes through on the inside past Engstler! Andlauer can now drive his race. Porsche, Audi, BMW. Weerts just 2.6 seconds down on Engstler. Traffic has been cleared and Charles Weerts too will deal with the traffic here in a wee while. Traffic giveth. Traffic taketh away. More penalties applied for track limits and I think for fueling too but I can't be sure. Andlauer has in fact had half a dozen track limits warnings and Engstler has had three. Ricardo Feller runs wide and gets back on track. A Porsche recovering at Blanchimont. That is the #62 Team Parker Racing Porsche in the hands of Derek Pierce. The car looks OK. He'll keep on trucking.
Maybe it was just a spin, not a Swiss roll. Pierce though, just had the car snap away from him at Blanchimont! Oy yoy yoy yoy yoy! He'll have Fred Flintstoned those Pirelli P Zero tires without a doubt! The car behind, the driver will have eyes like dinner plates! Totally dilated! Neil Verhagen through the Piff Paff. The #40 Orange1 Audi is getting back into a rhythm in fourth place, Ricardo Feller, again, at the wheel of it. Balance of Performance makes things even but it is frustrating as far as building momentum going to power, and it is so hard sometimes to keep up with the other cars. Neil Verhagen is in that situation chasing Ricardo Feller.
Derek Pierce now has a 30 second penalty for track limits after that monster spin! That isn't fair! That was the mother, father, aunt, and uncle of all spins through Blanchimont! Somehow or other, the Mercedes' do not look to be on rails like they were last year. Andlauer now 1.3 seconds ahead of Engstler and now, Benja Hites in the #85 Lamborghini, even with a penalty, is leading Silver and second spot in the class is the Audi for Tresor Orange1 in the hands of Pietro della Guanti. Benjamin Hites clears the "back marker" and makes good his escape while Sandy Mitchell is into the top 20 passing Miklas Born in the #157 Winward Racing Mercedes AMG GT3. Pietro della Guanti does go through and he does have to make up time to the Chilean driver.
116 lap completed with fading light and rain that we have not seen yet. Andrew Kirkaldy is a salmon fisherman on the River Spay so he should know about the weather. Dennis Olsen in the #96 Rutronik Racing Porsche, he too is moving into the picture.
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