Bad weather and the Safety Cars characterized the night of the 24h of Spa, which started around 2am after a very long interruption behind the safety car due to the heavy downpour that hit the Ardennes track.
In reality there was very little time to push on the accelerators for the protagonists of GT World Challenge Europe/Intercontinental GT Challenge because intermittently there were always accidents or some off-track exits which forced the race direction to freeze everything with the Full Course Yellow.
The most spectacular was certainly the one at ‘La Source’ which saw the multiple contact between the Ferraris #71 and #93, and the Mercedes #48, with the latter coming out on top, while Mex Jansen went through shivers when he suddenly lost control of his #36 Aston Martin at Eau Rouge, shooting outward and smashing the car into the barriers, but emerged unharmed and quite distraught.
Meanwhile, the #90 Mercedes and the #188 McLaren also went off the track, with the latter losing its left rear at the ‘Bus Stop’ and coming to a stop at the entrance to the pit lane.
Problems also for the Mercedes #2 (front left), #130 (rear) and #60, while at Team WRT the BMW #46 was punished with a Drive Through following the collision between Valentino Rossi and Davide Rigon’s Ferrari, and the #32 was given 50″ for an FCY infringement.
Added to this is the fact that around 3.30 the intensity of the rain decreased and some even tried to fit slick tyres, but in vain because the track did not dry out anyway.
Needless to say, with all the interruptions, restarts, repeated pit stops and so on, the standings have undergone constant changes and the latest update when the early morning light is already present (although with temperatures at 14°C, wind and still a light drizzle to disturb) sees the #911 Porsche of Pure Rxcing in the lead with a ten-second advantage over the revived #163 Lamborghini of GRT.
#51 AF Corse – Francorchamps Ferrari 296 GT3: Alessandro Pier Guidi, Davide Rigon, Alessio Rovera
Photo by: Eric Le Galliot
A little further away we have the BMWs of WRT #46 and #32, chased by the Ferrari #51 of AF Corse-Francorchamps Motors, which with the usual combative Alessandro Pier Guidi managed to gain fourth position by overtaking Dries Vanthoor , while the Aston Martins of Comtoyou Racing #7 and Walkehorst Motorsport #34 are in sixth and seventh place.
Next up are the Tresor Attempto Audis and the #66 (in addition to being ahead of the #99 in the fight for eighth place) is the leader of the Bronze Cup class.
Also in the Top 10 is the BMW #998 of Rowe Racing, closely followed by the Porsche #92 of SSR Herberth and the Mercedes #777 of AlManar Racing, first in the Gold Cup.
In this category, second place goes to the #25 Audi of Saintéloc, again ahead of the #77 Mercedes of HRT and the #88 Audi of Tresor Attempto.
In the Silver Cup, the Mercedes of Winward #57 returns to the front, while the Aston Martin #35 of Comtoyou Racing takes second place, pulling behind the Mercedes #3 of GetSpeed.
In PRO/AM the McLaren #100 of RJN gave way to the Mercedes of Corwdtrike-Riley #4. Still third was the AMG of Uno Racing-Landgraf #16.
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