24 Hours of Spa – Bentley takes the lead after three hours of racing

The first hour saw the domination of the No. 8 Audi R3 LMS GT2 – Audi Sport Team WRT of René Rast – Robin Frijns – Nico Müller, Rast having taken the best start against theAston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 n°62 – R-Motorsport by Maxime Martin – Marvin Kirchhöfer – Dominik Baumann.

The first burst of pit stops around the first hour, however, allowed the Aston Martin to regain the advantage over the #2 Audi, while the #3 Lamborghini Huracan GT63 – GRT of Mirko Bortolotti notably took advantage of an early stop to move up to third place.

The second hour saw this trio lead the peloton, the gap between the three cars stabilizing around 1″5. About fifteen seconds later, there is another trio made up of the No. 8 Audi R3 LMS GT29 – Montaplast by Land of Sheldon and Kelvin van der Linde and Jeffrey Schmidt, of the Ferrari 488 GT3 n°72 – SMP Racing de Rigon – Molina – Aleshin et la Bentley Continental GT3 n°8 – Team M-Sport de Soulet – Soucek – Abril.

And while the No. 29 Audi is making its second stop, a Full Course Yellow procedure is deployed following the car's exit from the track. Mercedes-AMG GT3 n°89 – AKKA ASP, then entrusted to Philippe Giauque, at the top of the Raidillon de l'Eau Rouge.

The opportunity for the majority of the leading cars to return to the pit lane, which will modify certain positions in the hierarchy. If the No. 62 Aston Martin maintains the advantage over the No. 2 Audi and the No. 63 Lamborghini, Mikhail Aleshin (No. 72 Ferrari) moves up to fourth position ahead of the first No. 3 Mercedes-AMG GT4 – Mercedes -AMG Team Black Falcon of Engel – Buurman – Stolz and the Lamborghini Huracan GT3 n°82 – GRT of Keen – Perera – Ineichen.

Suivent l’Audi R8 LMS GT3 n°25 – Audi Sport Team Saintéloc de Vervisch – Haase – Winkelhock et les deux Porsche 911 GT3 R n°117 Team75 Bernhard de L. Vanthoor – Bernhard – Bamber et la n°911 – Manthey Racing de Dumas – Makowiecki – Werner.

The two main losers from this round of judgments remain the McLaren 650S GT3 n°58 – Garage 59 de Ledogar – Pla – Barnicoat and especially Audi n°29 – Montaplast by Land, out of the top 10.

Bentley and Abril enjoy a Full Course Yellow

The third hour of the race will confirm the control of Aston Martin and R-Motorsport since the No. 62 will widen the gap thanks in particular to a superb stint from newcomer Dominik Baumann, who replaces Alex Brundle from these 24 Spa hours.

More than 7″ ahead of a trio made up of Robin Frijns (Audi no. 2), Christian Engelhart (Lamborghini no. 63) and the Bentley no. 8 of Vincent Abril, author of a nice comeback to fourth position, the Aston stopped just before the third hour of the race, like most of the leading cars.

Only Vincent Abril continues his effort, when a second Full Course Yellow is deployed for the #12 Aston Martin V3 Vantage GT97 – Oman Racing Team going off the track at turn #8, before the safety car or exit.

A perfect boon for the Gard driver and the British team who made their stop under neutralization after having taken a good lead over the competition.

Consequently, at the restart, the upset classification places the No. 8 Bentley in control of the race, around ten seconds ahead of the No. 3 Lexus RC F GT114 – Emil Frey Racing of Siedler – Ortelli – Palttala and the Nissan GT- R Nismo GT3 n°23 – RJN Motorsport of Buncombe – Parry – Ordonez. The No. 3 Mercedes-AMG GT49 – Ram Racing is in fourth place and dominates the Pro-Am.

You have to go back down to fifth place to see the old top cars with the No. 2 Audi pursued by the No. 4 Mercedes, the No. 911 and No. 117 Porsches, the No. 25 Audi and the No. 34 BMW . A hard blow for the No. 62 Aston Martin previously in the lead, Maxime Martin having fallen back to 21st after experiencing a refueling problem during his last stop.

Note that the No. 488 Ferrari 3 GT72 suffered a puncture a few moments after the green flag, dropping the Aleshin – Rigon – Molina team beyond the top 30.

Ranking after three hours