Italian GT cars up front after two hours at Spa

Italian GT cars up front after two hours at Spa

The second hour of the Total 24 Hours of Spa ended behind the safety car which was deployed on lap 45 following a major crash by Pasin Lathouras in the #50 AF Corse Ferrari at the top of Raidillon. The Thai driver walked away unscathed, but the first neutralisation was called to allow for the massive amount of debris to be cleared.

Meanwhile, Italian GT cars continue to dominate proceedings at the front of the field. After 47 laps, the #63 GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini is leading from the #55 Kaspersky Motorsport Ferrari. While Mirko Bortolotti is still behind the wheel of the Lamborghini, Marco Cioci has taken over from Giancarlo Fisichella in the Ferrari. “It was a very good first stint. At the end, I was really careful with the tyres to make them last all the way,” Fischella commented after the first driver change.

The #1 Audi Sport Team WRT Audi is third with René Rast behind the wheel, followed by Connor de Philippi in the team’s #2 sister car. In front of his his home crowd, Maxime Soulet is showing a strong performance in the #8 Bentley Team M-Sport Bentley, running in fifth place before nearly all the drivers came in for pit stops during the neutralisation.

There was drama for last year’s winning team ROWE Racing as Alexander Sims brought the #99 BMW into the pits with damage to the right rear suspension at the start of the second hour. Various drivers were given drive-through penalties for track limit infringements.

The #97 Oman Racing Team with TF Sport Aston Martin continues to lead the Pro-Am class in seventh place overall, followed by the #16 Black Falcon Mercedes that has been making good progress with Maximilian Götz driving. Next up are the #89 AKKA ASP Mercedes and the #18 Black Falcon Mercedes.

The AM class lead is still firmly in the hands of the #888 Kessel Racing Ferrari followed by the #777 HB Racing Lamborghini and the #36 Walkenhorst Motorsport BMW. The #991 Speedlover Porsche is leading the national class from the #56 RMS Porsche.