There are only 180 minutes left until the end of the 24 Hours of Spa, but this round valid for the GT World Challenge Europe/Intercontinental GT Challenge is far from over and, in fact, continues to provide endless thrills.
At Hour 20 there were two more incidents requiring the Full Course Yellow-Safety Car to be declared. The first was due to an error by John Hartshorne, who, exiting the ‘Brussels’ hairpin, lost acceleration in his #74 Ferrari, crashing into the right-hand wall, demolishing the 296 GT3.
Next, it was Valentino Rossi’s turn to make a mistake at ‘Les Combes’, coming very wide and hitting Nicolò Rosi’s Ferrari #8; the boy from Kessel Racing spun across the track and was caught by the innocent Romain Leroux who was arriving at the wheel of the Aston Martin #35 of Walkenhorst Motorsport, subsequently crashing into the wall.
The #46 BMW suffered damage to the front right side and returned to the pits for repairs, thus losing the chance to fight for the podium he was aiming for (he is now 22nd), while the ‘Doctor’ was summoned by the stewards to explain what happened.
#46 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3: Raffaele Marciello, Maxime Martin, Valentino Rossi
Photo by: Eric Le Galliot
In the meantime, Ferrari-AF Corse have managed the most hectic phases very well and now Alessandro Pier Guidi has taken the lead with the 296 GT3 #51, given that in the last round of pit stops the Aston Martin #7 of Comtoyou Racing and the BMW #998 of Rowe Racing found themselves behind the Rossa by a couple of seconds, in a classification where there are around fifteen cars at full speed.
Third is now the #92 Porsche of SSR Herberth, which in turn keeps at bay the #99 Audi of Tresor Attempto, once again in the top five but remaining ahead of the #34 Aston Martin.
WRT’s #32 BMW slips to seventh, while eighth and ninth are the two Mercedes cars leading the Gold Cup class, the #777 of AlManar Racing and the #77 of HRT.
The Lamborghini of GRT completes the absolute Top 10, but behind it comes the Audi #66 of Tresor Attempto which holds the record in the Bronze Cup Class, a category in which the virtual podium always remains in the hands of the Lamborghini #72 of Barwell and the Ferrari #52 of AF Corse.
In PRO/AM the Mercedes #4 of Crowdstrike-Riley is managing the situation given the large advantage it has accumulated over the McLaren #100 of RJN. The AMG of Uno Racing-Landgraf #16 is comfortably third.
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