At BMW, the Rowe Racing team is down the order with their two cars. #98 the Eng/Yelloly/Wittmann car and #998, Dan Harper, Max Hesse, and Augusto Farfus. BMW have had to accept these late Balance of Performance changes after winning this race a year ago. One BMW in the top 20 of the 66 starters. 23 laps completed, 100 miles. Lucas Auer ahead of Davide Rigon. The McLaren's well, the fastest is the #188 Marvin Kirchhofer car in 14th place. Maxime Martin in the #46 is mired in traffic currently, look, heading for Pouhon. Lucas Auer in the lead of the motor race. Gilles Magnus leads the Gold Cup class. He is a standout GT3 driver and has a real career ahead of him. Marco Wittmann in 19th place. The GT3 cars are so evenly matched, and it is frustrating for everyone to make hay while the sun shines.
It is incredibly competitive. Lucas Auer is ahead of Davide Rigon by 1.8 seconds with a clean road at La Source so far. A McLaren is in the pit lane, and I don't know which one. I think it is #158. That is Mark Sansom, Chris Salkeld, James Baldwin, and Nicolai Kjaergaard. Augusto Farfus has uncorked a personal best sector but last year's winning Rowe Racing BMW is still the best one. He is 19th. His best lap is 2:17.6 compared to the fastest lap at 2:16.3. Auer has gained half a second over Davide Rigon. Well, well, well. Luca Stolz runs third. Franck Perera is fourth, but he has dropped 5.7 seconds away. One of the team managers is summoned to Race Control to be reminded of a penalty, and no, not for tea and biscuits.
Lucas Auer is doing all he can to stretch the advantage over Davide Rigon in this opening stint. Auer and the Mercedes are fundamentally managing their Pirelli P Zero tires at this moment. The field drops from Les Combes to Bruxelles and now the clouds are rolling in and we could see precipitation fairly soon. Hello to Ben Barnicoat at McLaren and he says he is a massive fan of the wet. He will not be racing until 11PM and Sean Balfe is in the car, in his first 24 Hours of Spa, a great driver in the British GT Championship. They also race to GT3 regulations of course. With the new evo kit on the McLaren, they can adjust the wing to a certain extent.
Tire life was good before the Full Course Yellow according to Barnicoat. They are taking care of their tires which is very important. With the new surface, it is very good. It is giving life to the Spa track but does create a ton of grip and a lot of understeer. If it rains, well, we saw the British GT cars in the wet, and when a track has been resurfaced, it is the dry line that is best, not the wet line, the rain line. Dominik Baumann and Arjun Maini in two of the Mercedes' are in a good battle for eighth spot in the overall. The McLaren has more mechanical grip through places like Les Combes and Piff Paff (Fangnes).
Some drivers have changed over from a Hypercar/LMDh, or an LMP2, to a GT3 and drivers are definitely adaptable and the GT3 platforms are difficult to work with because all the cars are so different. A front engine Lexus RC F GT3 compared to a mid-engine McLaren 720S GT3 Evo. #333 Ferrari makes a bold pass, Fabrizio Crestani, passing the Audi of Markus Paverud. Benjamin Goethe chasing Markus Paverud as Laurens Vanthoor is crawling all over the back of Colin Caresani's Mercedes. Everyone is worrying about the loss of performance in the Porsche camp. A second pit stop has happened for the #30 BMW M4 GT3 of Ahmad Al Harthy. The Oman driver has dropped down the order. Al Harthy sharing with Jens Klingman, Sam De Haan, and Calan Williams. The Omani driver sharing with the German, the Brit, and the Australian.
Tonight, we are going to see rain, and we don't know how long that rain could be. In 58th place it is the #4 CrowdStrike by Riley Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 has Ian James driving sharing with Colin Braun, George Kurtz, and Nicky Catsburg. Laurens Vanthoor in 33rd place and he wants to stay on the lead lap throughout the race. The Full Course Yellows and safety car scrambles will work to his advantage for sure. It was a slow puncture for Ahmad Al Harthy and now we have a Porsche that has spun, the #54 Dinamic GT Porsche 911 GT3R. hE CONTINUES. Philipp Sager, the Austrian at the controls.
Gabriele Rindone and Tim Creswick are battling for position. Lamborghini vs. Porsche. Not sure of the specific teams for those cars as we are just too busy to check identification on some of these cars. Ralf Bohn and Niccolo Rosi are racing each other along with Darren Leung and now, the gap is markedly reduced as Franck Perera is harrying Luca Stolz for third spot. Auer has a left rear puncture! The race leader is in trouble! Oh, my heavens! Well, let's see. The tire is coming off the rim! Fortunately, he is almost at the pit entry. He still is limping down the pit lane. The order is now shuffled and we watch Franck Perera chasing Lucas Stolz I believe.
#48 is in the heritage pit lane and he has to limp uphill and back downhill! There will be a driver change and a four-tire change as well as a load of fuel but man, oh man, they will be off sequence! That tire is shot! Where in this long pit lane do you want to be? My goodness! Luca Stolz is being encouraged with five laps to go in his stint. Ryan Myrehn and John Watson now in the broadcast booth. Can the drivers avoid these incidents, but sometimes it is down to chance or the hand of God, honestly. Mitigate errors as best as possible. Maro Engel is way down in 59th place and needs a safety car and the wave around to get back in the fight.
Luca Stolz now being monstered by South African Jordan Pepper. He is a megastar in GT3 and has been for several years. Ben Barnicoat is a star, his employers in the states at Toyota/Lexus think the world of him. There is so much junked rubber around the circuit as now, Mark Radcliffe has moved past Price Jeffri Ibrahim, the royal Prince of Johor in Malaysia. Jordan Ppper follows him through. This is the crown jewel of this championship. Jordan Pepper was champion for K-PAX in GT World Challenge America and they are currently looking for a new manufacturer to work with.
Davide Rigon leading the motor race and we should be close to making scheduled pit stops again before very long. Rigon leads Stolz by six seconds. Eau Rouge is a massive challenge especially for the American drivers and now, the BMW is being monstered by the Porsche. Marco Wittmann vs. Matt Campbell. These two battle each other for Porsche and BMW stateside in prototypes. This is 13th and 14th in class and 18th and 19th in the overall. Ricardo Feller is just ahead of Marco Wittmann, aboard the Audi R8 LMS Evo II. Feller, Wittmann, Campbell, Farfus, Guven, Martin, Sturm, van der Linde, Mitchell.
Maxime Martin, as we said, is now a member of the 24 Hours of Spa Hall of Fame along with his dad and his uncle. Feller to the outside of Andlauer and they touch! A little argy bargy. How they didn't have full contact, I have no idea. This is a tight group of cars from 11th on down. Matt Campbell won overall for Porsche at the Rolex 24 at Daytona back in January in a prototype and got a Formula E test with Porsche and now, the #96 Rutronik Porsche is pressing forward. Fabian Schiller now in the #2 GetSpeed Mercedes replacing Luca Stolz for now. Several cars coming to the pit lane.
Porsche #96 will have a driver change at Rutronik Racing. Patric Niederhauser, Julien Andlauer, and Sven Muller. Trouble too for the #80 LionSpeed/Herberth Porsche 911 GT3R. That is through Courbe Paul Frere. Antares Au sharing with Martin Rump, Alexander Fach, and Alessio Picariello. Car #97, the other Rutronik Porsche is called for tack limits, but it is game over for the #97! That is academic. Exhaust and gearbox damage. Terrible news for Dustin Blatner, Loek Hartog, Zach Robichon, and Dennis Marschall. Drive through penalty for the #52 Louis Machiels Ferrari.
Alessandro Pier Guidi now at the wheel of the #51 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 and we have heard news about the #99 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi as well, Ricardo Feller sharing with Alex Aka, and Christopher Haase. Loose bodywork and contact for the #21 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 Evo. The bonnet is loose. Charles Clark, Matisse Lismont, Xavier Maassen, and Sam Dejonghe, as Lorenzo Patrese has taken over from Glenn van Berlo in the #88 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi R8 LMS Evo II as well. Thomas Drouet is the erstwhile leader who must pit. Lorenzo Patrese is leading the Gold Cup currently.
The #96 Rutronik Porsche running over the curbs. Sven Muller at the controls currently. We see a battle for position between the #63 Lamborghini of Andrea Caldarelli not having the best race he wanted as of yet for eighth and ninth being chased by the #163 car. Three wide through the chicane. This is a flip flop of the qualifying order at Lamborghini Iron Lynx and Franck Perera had a major time loss on the most recent pit stop. Caldarelli is 11th presently and we actually have them in tenth and 11th. Marco Mapelli in the #163 car. Maro Engel is 13th aboard the #48 Mercedes-AMG Team Mann Filter car.
These GT3 cars have so much carbon fiber, and the shards are like razor blades. Fabian Schiller running in second place in the #2 GetSpeed Mercedes-AMG. He has other programs in International GT Open and did some racing in Asian Le Mans Series and in SRO Europe and he has run in SRO GT World Challenge America before as well. Always fascinating seeing cars blend out of the pit lane through Raidillon and up the Kemmel straightaway as Lorenzo Patrese runs in fourth spot in the overall currently. Alexander Sims is much delayed in the #888 Mercedes-AMG GT3 he is sharing with Jordan Love, Martin Konrad, and Prince Jeffri Ibrahim, the Triple Eight JMR car from Australia.
Alessandro Pier Guidi is the leader aboard the #51 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3. Ross Gunn has just set his fastest lap at 2:17.388.
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