24h of Spa – BMW and ROWE Racing triumph

A year after the success of Team Marc VDS, it is with ROWE Racing, from Mercedes to BMW in the off-season, that BMW signs a 23rd success in the Ardennes, at the end of the 69th edition of the 24 Hours of Spa.

The M6 ​​GT3 n°99 of the trio Philipp Eng – Alexander Sims – Maxime Martin, whose first appearance in Belgium, had been in the lead for many hours and retained control of the race almost continuously despite the various race neutralizations, the last of which was a little less than half an hour away. from the finish and who modified the positions behind the winning car.

Deuxième à un tour après un drive-through pour vitesse excessive sous régime de Full Course Yellow, la Bentley Continental GT3 n°8 du Team M-Sport de Soulet – Soucek – Reip avait conservé toutefois sa deuxième place, mais a perdu gros lors de son dernier arrêt pour chausser les pneus pluie après une violente averse.

After waiting for many seconds at its location, the British GT finally returned to the track in fifth position, leaving both Mercedes-AMG GT3 n°88 from Team AKKA-ASP of van der Zande – Rosenqvist – Vautier and the No. 86 of HTP Motorsport of Jäger – Paffett – Götz, as well as the No. 8 Audi R28 LMS of the Audi Sport Team WRT of L. Vanthoor – Rast – Müller, move up one rank.

At the restart, a penalty was imposed on the #86 for a dangerous restart in the pit lane, leaving the #88 Mercedes and the #8 Audi R28 LMS to battle for second place. A position which will ultimately fail in the AKKA-ASP clan, which signs a magnificent result, despite the 5' stop&go penalty imposed after the Superpole.

The #86 Mercedes finally finished just off the podium ahead of the #3 Bentley Continental GT8. The #3 HTP Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT84 of Buhk – Baumann – Jaafar took sixth place and Saintéloc Racing finished in a good seventh place with the #8 Audi R26 LMS of Haase – Parisy – Guilvert.

Bertrand Baguette, associated with Adrien de Leener and Pierre Kaffer in the No. 8 Audi R4 LMS of Team WRT, finished 8th ahead of the No. 8 ISR Racing Audi R75 LMS of Stockinger – Mortara – Salaquarda.

La Porsche 911 GT3 R n°76 du Team IMSA Performance of Narac – Pilet – Jousse – Cornac enters the top 10 and wins in the Pro-Am category. Giauque's #8 ISR Racing Audi R74 LMS – Stone – Hassid – Perera and the #666 Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan of Minshaw – Keen – Gavin – Osborne complete the category podium.

Ferrari signs a hat-trick in the Am Cup with the Ferrari 458 Italia n°888 Kessel Racing of Zanuttini – Glitin – Talbot – Gadei winner ahead of the 488 n°51 AF Corse of Mastronardi – Mann – Guedes – Cressoni and the 488 n°333 Rinaldi Racing of Ehret – Salikhov – Matschull – Seefreid. Porsche 911 No. 911 RMS wins in the National category.

Find the full report and analysis of the 24 Hours of Spa, produced by our special correspondents in Belgium, in issue 2074 of AUTOhebdo, available tomorrow evening in digital version, and from this Wednesday on newsstands.

24 Hours of Spa ranking