Nothing between Orange1 FFF Racing Lamborghini and Audi Sport Team WRT at the 10-hour mark

Nothing between Orange1 FFF Racing Lamborghini and Audi Sport Team WRT at the 10-hour mark

After ten hours of racing in the 2021 edition of the TotalEnergies 24 Hours of Spa the #63 Orange1 FFF Racing Lamborghini and the #32 Audi Sport Team WRT car were separated by only six seconds. The other chasing Audi Sport Team WRT machine dropped three places with an issue at the entrance of the pitlane.

Lamborghini, Audi, Audi: between the 8- and 10-hour mark, the order of the top-3 did not seem to change. Except when the leading cars entered pitlane for their 10th pitstop. The #37 Audi Sport Team WRT car, then driven by Dennis Lind, came to a halt at the beginning of pitlane. The Danish driver had to perform a couple of resets to be able to continue, but in the process almost 90 seconds were lost. The Audi dropped to sixth overall, but managed to remain on the lead lap.

Meanwhile Marco Mapelli had taken over from Mirko Bortolotti on the leading #63 Lamborghini. The Italian first extended his lead to almost twelve seconds, but after setting a couple of blistering lap times Dries Vanthoor in the #32 Audi Sport Team WRT car reduced the gap to under six seconds.

With the #37 Audi dropping to sixth, the #95 Garage 59 Aston Martin climbed to third, three-quarters of a minute behind the leaders. The #51 Iron Lynx Ferrari and the #88 Mercedes-AMG Team AKKA ASP machine – on which Raffaele Marciello managed to make up 30 seconds of the time lost after a drive-through penalty – completed the top five.

Just before the 10-hour mark the leading BMW, the #34 Walkenhorst Motorsport car, stopped at turn 18, ending the chances of the M6 bowing out with a success.

In Silver Cup, the #90 Madpanda Motorsport Mercedes-AMG still dominated proceedings, continuing to occupy a position within the top-10 overall. In Pro-Am the fight for the lead was hotting up, with the #188 Garage 59 Aston Martin briefly taking over the lead from the #52 AF Corse Ferrari. In Am Cup the #166 Hägeli by T2 Racing Porsche and #23 Huber Motorsport Porsche were separated by under a second.