Raffaele Marciello in the #46 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 has a flappy bonnet and the gaffer tape is coming apart. Hopefully it will not get worse, and we are inside the last two hours of the motor race here in the centenary 24 Hours of Spa with 428 laps completed, 1,863 miles. Ford Performance's Mark Rushbrook said they are really targeting having a lot of customer teams getting the Ford Mustang GT3 into championships worldwide in Europe, America, Asia, and Australia. More trouble for Raffaele Marciello in the #46 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 where Valentino Rossi had contact and this M4 GT3 has been through the absolute wringer. The bonnett is a bodge job, and it is not fitting properly with some damage, shoving the darn thing into place.
The most important thing in your toolbox is gaffer tape but these poor blokes are hemmorhaging time in 22nd place, and they are fighting for nothing and the same is true for the #93 Sky Tempesta Racing Ferrari with Lilou Wadoux getting into the automobile. We have also lost the #100 RJN McLaren with turbo boost issues although it may be back on the track it is badly, badly delayed. 16th in the overall and fourth in Bronze for Lilou Wadoux, new to the team for this weekend and she has fit in well.
Al Faisal A Zubair and his team are leading the Golf Cup at Al Manar Racing by GetSpeed in the #777 Mercedes-AMG GT3. Al Faisal Al Zubair is either laid back or he is totally cream crackered after this race. It has taken a toll on everyone, even me. Mikael Grenier leading the Gold Cup and are running sixth in the overall I believe. Philip Ellis is British, Swiss, and German, and went to school in Mallorca, Spain. Race leading Ferrari in the lane. Philipp Ellis Googled how to be a racing driver, and racing teams and sent loads of emails, tested a go kart, and here he is in these endurance races.
Alessio Rovera in the lead with the Aston Martin boys are chasing them down. Now, we could very well see some reain, maybe. Your guess is as good as mine. Find a forecast you like. Our Italian colleagues are buzzing about it. So, Alessandro Pier Guidi heads back on track. 432 laps completed, 1,880 miles. Thiim leads over Max Hesse in the BMW. Max Hesse might go to the end of the race for an hour and 48 minutes to go. You need a fresh driver if we see a late race safety car. Maybe the Brazilian veteran Augusto Farfus, keeping his poweder dry, the old soul at 40 years old. He has been around the BMW camp for a long time after a cople years in touring cars with Alfa Romeo.
Nikki Thiim cutting personal best laps in sector one on the road. An hour and 46 minutes left on the board. Short pitting and putting Pier Guidi in the Ferrari, he has held it together for a good while now. Max Hesse is 18 seconds down now on the Ferrari and the Aston Martin I believe. The #4 Pro-Am leading Mercedes looking good. George Kurtz is still nervous, the CEO of CrowdStrike, the sponsor of this race. If it stays green that is what their team wants. They are doing what they need to do. Keeping the car safe, minding track limits.
He won in class in 2022. The 24 Hours of Spa is a bucket list race. Max Hesse in the lane. No driver change. They will have one more stop to come yet. New tires for Max Hesse as Julien Andlauer's Porsche has been teasing us and Mattia Drudi will take over the #007 Comtoyou Aston Martin, a longtime Audi factory driver. In 1948, that was the last Aston Martin win in the 24 Hours of Spa. We talked about it a few hours ago. Max Hesse is getting back up to speed. The #96 Rutronik Racing Porsche are 35 minutes into a stint. The maximum stint time is 62 minutes. BMW Team WRT #32 are in the pit lane doing their brisk pit work.
Ross Gunn will finish the #34 Walkenhorst Motorsports Aston Martin he shares with David Pittard, and Henrique Chaves. Jordan Pepper is back up into the lead and I'll tell you what, Mercedes-AMG's races have gone completely pear shaped. So strange. It sometimes goes acorss a year that works out well and you need to enjoy them whille you have them. We have passed a decade since WRT won this race which was in 2014.
Jordan Pepper has bailed out of the Lamborghini with an hour and 35 minutes to go. So, Ryan Myrehn will head to the podium to meet the winners and we have David and John's company for the final hour and a half. Marco Mapelli will finis the race for GRT Grasser. Alessandro Pier Guid leads the motor race, still. Everyone else is making no mistakes and keeping a pace. Dan Harper and BMW were very worried about light and numb steering.
The RJN McLaren is back on track after their power loss and turbo boost issues. Max Hesse passes Julien Andlauer for third place. Pit entry is blocked. Oh dear. We don't know. It is a Lamborghini, car #19 which has expired at pit in. That car running in 35th spot. Haytham Quarajoli at the wheel of it sharing with Matteo Llarena, Hugo Cook, and Baptiste Moulin. Yannck Mettler leads the Silver class over Aurelien Panis. One more pit stop for most and Julien Andlauer might do two more pit stops I'm afraid instead of one.
I wonder how the new pavement has survived the GT3 cars hammering it. With high downforce single seaters, those open wheel cars can break up new tarmac. Henrique Chaves is inow in the #34 Walkenhorst Aston Martin. The best placed McLaren is the car of Tom Gamble. One of the Barwell Lamborghini's in the Bronze Cup, Mattia Michelotto with a punctured tire. Steady, mate. Slow down. Michelotto got the message and drove slowly to the lane. We are watching Job van Uitert, Marius Nakken, and Markus Paverud as Barwell are at the pit in. Something must be fragging on the back of that car or it is gravel or carbon fiber.
Dylan Pereira, the Luxembourg driver is now at the top of the shop in the Bronze Cup. People run over the curbs because it is quicker but don't do it too much or you will cut down a tire. The Ferrari has barely missed a beat and run metronomically. The Rutronik Porsche pits for the second to last time. They would have to do a clock reset and a dplah and a dash. Julien Andlauer drove through pit lane probably to do a reset. The Porsche and the Mercedes running to the very limits of the circuit.
This is the Alan Valente driven Mad Panda Motorsports Mercedes sharing with Karol Basz, Patrick Assenheimer, and Ezequiel Perez Companc. Romain Leroux and Niccolo Rosi are retirements from this race reducing the field to 42 cars and 24 retirements of the 66 cars that started the race. Max Hesse told he is catching up but only for third place. Stay on your toes and keep going.
Pier Guidi is 13 seconds to the good over Drudi. Hesse goes off the road and back on but he made the pass stick. In a Group C prototype some drivers could not take the final corner flat. Right now, the Ferrari of Pier Guidi is still ahead of Drudi and Hesse and I think the weather will stay as it is until the end of this race today. Max Hesseis back in and he has only done a 36-minute stint. An horu and four minutes left on the board. Maybe BMW are rolling the dice. One hour and three minutes to go. A stint is an hour and two minutes for Rower Racing. This could be a roll of the dice.
Max Hesse for Rowe Racing has indeed rolled the dice. Whey land, we don't know. Clear track running Harry Flatters down the straightaway. He will need to drive the best laps he has ever driven. Mercedes #10, Aurelien Panis has gone off the road with a technical issue down the main straight. One hour to go.
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