Neil Verhagen makes the pass and we have seen a calm race thus far as we will be at 1/4 distance at the end of this hour. We have seen hard but sensible racing. Julien Andlauer now has a 30 second penalty coming up for track limit offenses and he will have to serve it on his next pit stop. Goodness gracious! Track limits warning just a moment ago. What a darn shame. Penalties to another car that we don't have the number of. A ghost car? Adam Carroll gets a pit infringement penalty. Derek Pierce used to race Porsche Carrera Cup U.K. and his old mates are going to be thrilled that he is back in the picture. Julien Andlauer 2.2 seconds to the good over second spot. Julien Andlauer not leaving anything on the table and has racked up another penalty at Blanchimont.
Don't run all four wheels over the red and yellow demarcation line in Blanchimont. The leading drivers need to be on their toes the whole time through the 4.352 miles of the Spa circuit. Weerts has to be patient up until Blanchimont if he wants to get by Luca Engstler. Jules Gounon is reeling in Neil Verhagen hand over fist. He had to lift through Blanchimont. Verhagen for second. The drivers are using second gear into La Source I think. Gounon gets stymied by a Lamborghini he thought he'd pass. He'll be spitting feathers in his helmet between Pouhon and Fangnes. Be patient. That is all you can do.
Gounon has indeed made the pass now. So maybe he won't be steaming like I first thought. Audi #40, Ricardo Feller at the wheel of it, has copped a 30 second penalty for track limits. Eventually, the entire field is going to get one for abusing the track limits. How do you stop it? Gounon wriggling through the turm. You could put a barrier at Blanchimont as I said earlier. We are just five hours and ten minutes into the race meaning we award points at the six hour mark. Nick Yelloly in about 15 minutes could very well inherit the lead of the motor race depending on pit stops.
Feller goes around the outside as we have one of the Audi's slow and off line at Eau Rouge! Maybe the #75 SunEnergy1 Mercedes was in that mess someplace. Gounon, Verhagen, Feller, the order. Sandy Mitchell in 19th place cuts an absolute best first sector time this lap. Jules Gounon now has 24 seconds in hand over Weerts as Feller makes his move on Verhagen. Drivers facing a yellow light are slowing instantly ather than goijng through a Full Coueese Yellow. Weerts coming for Engstler in a big hurry and is only half a second behind.
Marvin Kirchhofer has swapped places with Louis Prette so both drivers on that team are really going for it. Weerts continues chasing Luca Engstler as we are seeing the cars coming into twilight. The tpp eight cars are not farm from pit stop time. 125laps inthe book. Sandy Mitchell on fresh tires ran a purple sector in sector 1, fastest of all. A yellow in Sector 3 as the #66 Audi has spun. No worries. That was a harmless spin in the chicane.
Louis Prette has made a pit stop and a host of others are now diviing for the pit lane including the leading #911 Manthye Racing Porsche. Top runners now in the pit lane. Five and a half hours of the race complete and in a half hour the race will be at quarter distance. Anton de Pasquale now at the controls of the #23 Porsche and the #92 is also down and away. He has dropped behind a few key cars. Charles Weerts leapfrogs Engstler and both of them leapfrogged Andlauer. Weerts makes the pass. Night is imminent. It is closing in as we approach five and a half hours of racing done with a half hour to go before the first third of points awards coming out.
Raffaele Marciello is now in eighth place. Nick Yelloly is the erstwhile race leader who will indeed be making a pit stop soon as Nicklas Nielsen has taken over the #51 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 and the leading Silver is the #99 Audi R8 of Lorenzo Patrese. That is the second Tresor Orange1 Audi. Andlauer still in the #92 Manthey EMA Porsche. They are going to maximize the nighttime hours. Charles Weerts is now 6/10ths of a second down on Luca Engstler and the Ferrari momentarily stalls in the pit lane. Another phantom issue for the #51, Nicklas Nielsen at the controls. Ferrari not having rhe race here so far that they had at Le Mans a handful of weeks ago.
Recall Robert hwartzmann saying rain would help them. Audi #66 got tipped into a spin by the #20 Tim Heinemann driven Porsche. Weerts has a look to the inside of Luca Engstler. No dice this time. 2:22 for Yelloly and these two have more fuel and fresh Pirelli tires and are four seconds faster. We are getting to the nighttime and cars will all get more horsepower with cooler, denser air entering the intake for the engine. Engstler almost leans on the Porsche. Weerts turns in through Bruxelles and makes the pass for second on the road! By six hours the #32 BMW M4 GT3 might just be leading and be able to take the points!
Charles Weerts has to keep pushing and you can bet that is exactly what he will do. Finally, Charles Weerts makes the pass and this is manna from heaven for WRT. The stopped Ferrari was dealing with the anti stall system. 131 laps in the bag and we might see a BMW 1-2 for WRT and Rower but the Rowe car of Nick Yelloly needs a pit stop. Henrique Chaves is back at the wheel of the #188 Garage 59 McLaren and he is pressing hard once more while Nicklas Nielsen uncorks personal best at sector one and another best sector time as well. It was Nielsen who had the anti stall issue we were just talking about.
Busy times here at Spa with fastest lap times and fastest sector times galore. Yelloly remains in the lead. Weerts should be the man who earns the points when the sixth hour finishes up in about 19 minutes and Weerts will indeed assume the lead. WRT knows how to win races and championships. Nick Yelloly is leading the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup currently. Yelloly must come to the lane now to not exceed his stint duration and he brushes the wall! Oof! That was extremely close! He is going to do a triple stint? Maybe not. Maybe he will do a double. Charles Weerts assumes the race lead.
Christopher Mies now 23rd overall in the #25 Audi for Audi Sport Team Sainteloc. Mies sharing with Patric Niederhauser and Simon Gachet. We have had just two retirements. This race is five and three quarter hours old and so we should have another hour done and dusted in a wee while. Nick Yelloly is now tenth as his co-driver Marco Wittmann says that they had a decent start and have made progress but then got unlucky on Full Course Yellow pitting early. But they are clawing and scraping their way back through the field as we speak. He is a big fan of night driving at Spa.
Five or so cars get pinged for track limits and now, Nick Yelloly has to try and pass Lucas Auer, who is the nephew of Formula 1 legend and ten-time Grand Prix winner, Gerhard Berger. Auer keeps a cushion over Nick Yelloly. Yelloly, you know he mightily wants to make the pass but has to give it up for now through Speaker's Corner. The battle we are looking at is for eighth place. Is Yelloly close enough to Auer? That is the question. Yelloly makes a move on the inside on relatively fresh Pirelli tires and he makes it stick!
I think he caught Lucas Auer wrongfooted there. Charles Weerts is in the middle sector of his 140th lap of racing getting closer to six hours and a slice of the points pie. At WRT, it is a who's who of Belgian motor racing. Vincent Vosse, Thierry Tassin, Yves Weerts (Charles Weerts dad), and Pierre Dieudonne, too, a bunch of legendary drivers. Vincent Vosse ran his first car race in a Formula Ford at Oulton Park in England many moons ago. Sheldon van der Linde must be pretty happy with the car leading by four and a half seconds. Car #10 has stopped on the road. We'll get to that in a moment.
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