Took a lunch break and during that there were more pit stops and the wave by. After the wave by a handful of cars took the ppportunity to take fuel. Nobody needs to take fuel. Lorenzo Patrese leads Glenn van Berlo, Lucas Legeret, and Sam Neary, in Silver. The Pro teams run with three drivers while the other classes use four driver lineups. Daniel Juncadella walked into the garage and was upset with Lorenzo Ferrari. A year ago, Akkodis ASP won, but this year has not been their race. Jules Gounon says there are many drivers in SRO Europe and IGTC that do not have the respect for other drivers that they could have.
Jules Gounon also won on debut. Jules Gounon's girlfriend is Michelle Gatting. Safety Car in this lap and so we are going to go back to green flag racing this time around. Kelvin van der Linde is 34 minutes into his stint and the second place BMW has only been out for 17 minutes and ten minutes for fuel. But that is how WRT optimize this. Only lose one place, add more fuel. Their strategy allows them to choose when their next pit stop is. #32 and #998 are half a stint away from the other leaders. Again, safety car in this lap. It is cloudy and cold in Belgium tonight. Green flag. Now they charge towards La Source. So, it is a battle of the van der Linde brothers into Eau Rouge and uphill to Raidillon. Daniel Serra in seventh in the lead Ferrari is going for it already. There are two or three cars really moving up.
Dan Harper has the wheel of the #998 Rowe Racing BMW M4 GT3. It is actually the blue and bronze colored car. Laurens Vanthoor tries a lunge to get through but is still trying to find his way through. I lied. He did make the pass successfully. There's not much moonlight out there this evening and now, Timur Boguslavskiy has the #63 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo making a pass but in 53rd place trying to unlap himself. That is Jordan Pepper, the South African ace. There are no get of jail free cards. Drive like the devil is on your tail.
So, we have three South African drivers in the top three cars in line even though Jordan Pepper is realistically way down. Here come the other tpp cars. Timur Boguslavskiy, and others scrapping. Andrej Lewandowski of Poland is in tire trouble. He is off at Blanchimont. This is the car he shares with Aaron Wa;ker and company. Nope. Nope. I lied again. The Mercedes actually got clobbered by the Audi #10 of Boutsen VDS. Roee Meyuhas, the Israeli driver clattered into Lewandowski. Meyuhas sharing with Loris Cabirou, Cesar Gazeau, and Andrea Cola.
So, Kelvin van der Linde has a half a second on his brother Sheldon van der Linde, and the family hedges their bets with their boys. Meanwhile, we have a good battle between Daniel Harper, Laurens Vanthoor, and Mattia Drudi. BMW, Porsche, Audi. In the meantime, Timur Bougslavskiy is being harried by Ulsterman Dan Harper in the #998 Rowe Racing BMW M4 GT3 with Laurens Vanthoor right on top of him. Laurens and Dries Vanthoor, two more extremely competitive brothers. Boguslavskiy runs wide into Double Gauche.
Balance of Performance is designed to produce the same lap time from different cars that all have different designs and different engines. Dan Harper is dropping away from the van der Linde brothers but he has moved ahead of Timur Boguslavskiy. Laurens Vanthoor and Mattia Drudi have actually passed him and so has the BMW of Marco Wittmann while Henrique Chaves is motoring and he, I think, he made 28 passes at the start of the race earlier today. Michelle Gatting and company retire from this race. They celebrated last year winning in class but this year, they are out. Game over. They have to analyze what happened to the car.
Doriane Pin is fine. There's still two thirds of this race to go. They are racing in the FIA World Endurance Championship again next weekend in a Porsche at the 6 Hours of Monza. So much racing being done by that whole team. Doriane Pin also races in LMP2. So, 67 of 70 cars are still racing 1/3rd of the way through the race. But it is so tough for Iron Dames. Podium last year and now, out of the motor race before bedtime. So, the van der Linde brothers are still 1-2 and now being reeled in by the 52nd place Lamborghini while Dan Harper in third is ten seconds down.
Neil Verhagen, Dan Harper, and Max Hesse are in their third year of racing together just as when BMW had a junior team in the 1980s under Jochen Neerpasch. That actually began in the 1970s in BMW 320 Turbos. Kelvin van der Linde is trying to stop giving a tow to his brother. A sibling rivalry? Perhaps. Down through Bruxelles they go again in the darkness. Sheldon van der Linde could perhaps let the Lamborghini go by. Kelvin van der Linde is due in within the next ten minutes and should take another four laps, maybe five. No. Never mind. They'll do four and of course everyone has a 65 minute maximum stint length time.
The fun fair is massive with DJ's entertaining everybody. Dan Harper is making inroads. Audi, BMW, BMW, Porsche. As the leader gets to La Source, the next car ahead is at the top of the hill at Les Combes. Mattia Drudi is feeling the pressure from Henrique Chaves through Fangnes and Courbe Paul Frere. Earl Bamber, all over the shop, running 44th in the overall in the #23 Grove Racing Grove family Porsche. Drudi is getting a tow from the Porsche and so is Chaves. Drive through penalty to car #90 for causing a collision. That is the #90 MadPanda Motorsports Audi.
The Lewandowski and Meyuhas incident we saw earlier is also under review. A slew of Bronze teams are headed for the pit lane for service and Lewandowski is now 13 laps down. It has to be more than a punctued Pirelli tire then. Suspension is supposed to go up and down and not side to side. Mattia Drudi is answering Henrique Chaves' riddle through Eau Rouge and Raidillon. Luca Stolz in the lane and so is Benji Goethe and Franck Perera as well. No driver change for McLaren currently. It is a muggy evening here at Spa Francorchamps. The McLaren is indeed serviced and sent. One of the Lamborgini's is now in the lane and the leader should pit now.
He is headed for the lane for a driver change and for service, bang on the nose. Sheldon van der Linde, his brother, is now in the lead in the #32 WRT BMW M4 GT3. Henrique Chaves has also pitted the McLaren. Timur Boguslavskiy pits and now Daniel Serra is eighth in the best of the Ferrari's. Fresh Pirelli boots onto the #17 Audi Sport PHX Audi R8. The mechanics pull the earthing strap and the air jack line. When the air line is pulled off, the air jacks retract and the motor starts on it's own. So, the race leader, Shldon van der Linde is up the Kemmel straight. Kelvin van der Linde is a wee bit behind. You lose 4/5ths of a lap in a standard pit stop.
Laurens Vanthoor is third in the overall chasing down Dan Harper and Vanthoor does have lapped cars. Through Pouhon (Double Gauche) another time. BMW still run 1-2-3 and the #92 Porsche 911 GT3R pits for fuel with Laurens Vanthoor at the controls, now we are seeing temperatures dropping, and that will necessitate double stinting the Pirelli P Zero tires. When the temperature drops, a manufacturer can find the sweet spot, and then, things start happening. So, Jules Gounon has taken over the #88 Akkodis ASP Mercedes AMG GT3. Kelvin van der Linde dropped from first to 14th after his pit stop which has just happened I believe. It was a two minute pit stop exactly.
Pure Racing, Rowe Racing, and Attempto Racing have all pitted and here comes Dan Harper in the BMW Junior Team car to the pit lane. Harper driving car #998 of course. Sheldon van der Linde also in the pit lane for BMW in the #32 car for WRT. Mattia Drudi in the #40 car for Audi Sport Tresor Orange 1 has assumed the lead and ought to be in the pit lane this time by. Sheldon van der Linde has left the pit lane. Mattia Drudi runs ahead of Thomas Preining followed by Maxime Martin, Christian Engelhart, Gilles Magnus, pitting from fifth place in the #11 Comtoyou Racing Audi, and others.
Game over for the #63 Lamborghini for Iron Lynx. Jordan Pepper, Andrea Caldarelli, and Mirko Bortolotti, they are done. Game over. Such a shame. Joel Sturm in the #911 Pure Racing Porsche has also made his pit stop. Thomas Preining had brought the #96 Rutronik Racing Porsche to the lane and now they might have another driver in the car. Maxime Martin though went 'round again and is the new race leader in BMW #46 for WRT. Marco Wittmann uncorks fastest lap at 2:17.7 on full tanks!
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