Five hours to go as we go for a wave by again. Not in the Pro class. This is the 20th some odd edition of the 24 Hours of Spa for the Grand Touring cars and I believe the 14th or so for the GT3 cars. Big damage for John Hartshorne coming out of Bruxelles with fluid spewing out the front with king sized damage! Oh man! Oh man! It is out of the race. In this replay, Harthsorne runs wide, and he was on the gas, full throttle, breaking traction, and... ker-runch! That all happened in the blink of an eye lighting up the rear tire. Hartshorne has raced GT cars for a long time and 2024 is said to be his last full season as a driver. He drove a Ford Mustang GT3 at Le Mans. Full Course Yellow as we said. The debris into Jacky Ickx corner will be cleared up.
John Hartshorne is 67 years of age and has been racing since the 1980s. Kessel Racing has been in the motorsports game for a quarter century now, since 1999. After stopping earlier, the #51 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 of Davide Rigon, he could take the lead of this motor race as Sven Mueller takes the position in the #96 Rutronik Racing Porsche 911 GT3R as the #007 Aston Martin is in the lane for new boots. We are into the final five hours and no, I haven't the faintest idea who the winner of this race is going to be. You're asking me? I have no idea.
Alessio Rovera running fifth says these conditions with the mixed wet and dry weather and a single line to follow is very difficult to drive. Push to the maximm n the final four hours of this race. AF Corse got lucky at least once with a Full Course Yellow. It is hard to push when you have a slippery part of the line even though it isn't totally wet. Of the 66 cars that started, 44 continue in the race, 22 officially retired. We have had a lot of attrition. Farfus, Sorensen, Rigon, Hofer, Jaminet, Ellis, Pittard, Feller, Muller, Michelotto, Mapelli, Maini, MacDonald, Machiels, Mies, De Wilde, Gotz, Hui, Walker, Baud, Millroy, De Wilde, and Rosi, the top 25.
Safety Car lights on, pit entry closed. The wave by is coming. Jann Mardenborough did a 3:00 A.M. stint with water everywhere, and nothing but aquaplaning, like being in a big kettle full of boiling water. Jann Mardenborough says he'd love to be back in GT3 racing. He wants to be in Europe whether it is GT3 or Hypercar. Mardenborough is working on sponsorship and knocking on doors. Safety Car move left, eligible cars, move right. Nicky Catsburg in the #4 CrowdStrike Riley Mercedes, and now, people are slowing, and Catsburg has the wave by and cars not eligible for the wave by, separating. Pit lane now open.
The McLaren has had a turbo issue, the #100 car. With the wave by's, they tell you to stay to the left side of the road, or stay right and don't overtake, but Mardenborough had hot slicks. He had one wave by as the Max Hofer #66 Audi is leading Bronze Cup and the #4 Mercedes of Nicky Catsburg is pushing hard. Safety Car in this lap. I'm not sure there is a maximum for Pro drivers. 11 hours is for anyone. Mardenborough has two and a half possible hours of drive time. The #100 McLaren runs 31st in the overall. Audi #88 in the pit lane which was fourth with Glenn van Berlo yesterday.
Jann Mardenborough will drive a vintage race car at the Silverstone Classic. OK. Green flag! We're racing again. 364 laps complete, 1,584 miles. Contact and the Bronze leading car of Max Hofer gets fired off the road and had no choice. That was a hip and shoulder, an argy bargy moment! Ferrari inside, Audi, outside and Hofer should have conceded that spot. I don't see damage, I don't think. His co-driver Alexey Nesov says things are going perfectly and getting lucky with the safety cars but not at this moment. Hopefully they can finish the race well.
Hofer is now down behind Matthieu Jaminet and Philip Ellis overall. Full Course Yellow as the #8 Ferrari gets turned around and is blindsided by the Aston Martin! Niccolo Rosi and the #46 BMW M4 GT3 of Valentino Rossi has been damaged as well! Egad! That will be a pit stop for "The Doctor". Four and a half hours to go. We need to see who all has been involved in this shemozzle, the 21st Full Course Yellow of the race, half an hour after the last one. Jeepers creepers! Hello, to Ben Constanduros after doing production work overnight.
Drivers are OK. That's good. The Aston Martin, we cannot see it. The Nicolo Rosi Ferrari was in trouble and so is, well, I cannot see which Aston Martin that was. Maybe that was Romain Leroux in one of the Walkenhorst cars. Valentino Rossi hit Niccolo Rosi. It was Romain Leroux smashing into the Aston and now #46 needs a new nose and they have to hurry or they will go a lap down and be out of contention. Blimey O'Reilly! That is the Romain Leroux, Maxime Robin, Lorcan Hanafin car, the Aston Martin. That was a major crunch. A big hit.
Just survive. We have seen a war of attrition as we have 43 or 44 cars left. Rossi out of the car. Game over. That is the end of his drive time I guess and so, Maxime Martin and Raffaele Marciello will finish the race out. So, it isn't game over. It is just the end of Valentino Rossi's drive time. 367 laps now completed, 1,597 miles. Could Porsche spring a surprise? We started with nine brands I think, and we have six brands in the top six, I think. Mercedes had 14 cars start this race. In the Barwell Lamborghini, it is factory racer Sandy Mitchell. It is always a long second day on Sunday at the 24 Hours of Spa as Nicolo Rosi is back in the race.
Shaun Balfe is now back in the McLaren. No, he isn't. Let me correct myself. It's Sam Neary. Safety Car in this lap. We are going back to green. Green flag it is. Farfus, Sorensen, Rigon, the top three and then come backmarkers and other cars. Maxime Martin is back in the race but is way off the lead lap. Fredric Vesti and his co-drivers retired from the race earlier on. They had front splitter damage which hurt the car beyond repair.
Augusto Farfus has been around for a long time in touring cars, GT cars, or prototypes, a former factory Alfa Romeo touring car driver too I think. Farfus, SOrensen, Rigon up front. We are closing in again on the end of another racing hour in another ten or so minutes and the road is dry and fast here at Spa now. I wonder how everyone has done on a full green stint. 17 safety cars and 21 Full Course Yellows! Yikes! Marco Mapelli has reset his teammates fast lap on lap 365, 2:16.105! Holy smokes! Marco Mapelli uncorked one when it counted!
The gap is quite large because of the field spread after the yellow. 30 seconds separate everyone. Maxime Martin in 14th spot overall, fourth on the road as in Les Combes, Sam Neary in the Optimum McLaren spins out. This is the first time Sam Neary has raced at Spa. He either crashed out early or one year came down with a bout of food posioning and couldn't race at all. The incident has been noted by the stewards. Martin is going to get stuck. He is 18 minutes into his stint currently out of 63 I think.
David Pittard was on an alternative strategy and swapped over to the main strategy and the only interloper is Sven Mueller in the #96 Rutronik Racing Porsche 911 GT3R. The gap betwee Davide Rigon and Matthieu Jaminet is ten seconds. The Porsche just does not have the pace to turn it on against the Ferrari 296 GT3 but the new Aston Martin with a new team, oh man, they are in the pound seats as we are closing in on opening the pay window in the njext few hours. Two by two further back through Brussels corner.
Louis Prette, McLaren, Marius Nakken, Porsche. Alban Varutti, Audi. Maxi Gotz in the #9 Mercedes now with Ulysse de Pauw at the controls in 20th place or so. There are battles all over the speedway. Alessio Picariello hanging on and now, Marco Mapelli still has that fastest lap at 2:16.105, the CrowdStrike Fastest Lap for the pole sitting car in this race. Waxing positive about GRT Grasser Racing Team with Gottfried Grasser, the team boss.
Davide Rigon still pushing, still pushing, still pushing. This stint is very close to ending as Farfus is slower through the chicane heading for the La Source hairpin and teh Aston Martin hanging on behind the BMW.
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