It can be said that the best thing about the 24 Hours of Spa so far has been the delicious steaming pot of tortellini in broth that is traditionally served at midnight in the Ferrari pits, obviously taken by storm by engineers, mechanics, guests and even the team’s top brass, including the great boss Antonello Coletta.
The race of the GT World Challenge Europe/Intercontinental GT Challenge has now been neutralized since the middle of the seventh hour, when the much-announced deluge unfortunately arrived along the Ardennes route, complete with flashes and lightning that forced the race direction to send the the Lamborghini Safety Car on the track.
The only reports of what is happening on the track are the retirement of the #91 Porsche due to a suspension problem, an off-track excursion by the #188 McLaren and the penalties given to the #16 Mercedes (+5″ for speed violation in the pit lane), the #72 Lamborghini (+30″ for wrong pit exit) and the #64 Mustang (+25″ for pit stop violation).
For the rest, both drivers and workers in the pits and in the press room are wondering why the red flag isn’t displayed, given that we continue to run around empty, consuming fuel, tires and so on without the weather improving any time soon.
Tortellini in broth at the Ferrari pits
Photo by: Francesco Corghi
In all of this, the ranking is frozen and the changes are mainly due to pit stops and strategies that have gradually diversified among the various competitors in the game.
With all the cars on the upper levels at full speed after regrouping and ‘pass around’, in the lead we find the Porsche #23 of Phantom Global Racing with the BMW #998 of Rowe Racing and the Ferrari #51 of AF Corse-Francorchamps Motors behind.
Top 5 also for the #48 Mercedes, which had slipped to the back of the pack due to a puncture at the start of the race, and the #93 Ferrari of Sky Tempesta Racing, currently leading the Bronze Cup class.
The Audi #28 of Haas RT climbs to sixth place, pulling behind the BMW #32 of Team WRT, then there are the first two of the Gold Cup Class, namely the Mercedes #777 of Al Manar-GetSpeed and the Audi #25 of Saintéloc Racing, who complete the Top10 together with the #9 Mercedes of Boutsen VDS.
In the Silver Cup everything went well for the Aston Martin #21 of Comtoyou Racing, which always stayed behind the Mercedes of Winward #57 and Madpanda #90.
In PRO/AM the McLaren #100 of RJN performed well, well ahead of the Mercedes of Corwdtrike-Riley #4 and Uno Racing-Landgraf #16.
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