24 Hours of Spa – Porsche’s chances vanish

Au moment d’arriver à 6h30 de l’arrivée, un incident impliquant l’Audi R8 LMS GT3 n°111 – Aust Motorsport de Tobias Dauenhauer, la Bentley Continental GT3 n°8 – Team M-Sport d’Andy Soucek et la Porsche 911 GT3 R n°117 – Team75 Bernhard de Laurens Vanthoor a provoqué la neutralisation de l’épreuve sous régime de Full Course Yellow puis de voiture de sécurité.

A first contact between Vanthoor and Dauenheuer occurred at the Campus corner and sent the Audi into a spin, passing the outside curb, before the latter returned to the middle of the track.

Vanthoor then tries to slow down to avoid contact, a maneuver that Andy Soucek cannot anticipate. The Bentley driver then hit the Porsche head-on at the right rear, took off and landed on the front hood of the No. 111 Audi.

The three cars returned to the pits with significant damage to the front for the #111 Audi, to the left front for the #8 Bentley and to the right rear for the #117 Porsche, which remained in the lead pack in fifth position.

Porsche's hopes of success are therefore dashed with the abandonment of the No. 117, the No. 911 – Manthey Racing having already been slowed down by an alternator problem, then by a penalty for contact with the Audi R8 LMS GT3 n°66 – Attempto Racing.

#Spa24H - #Porsche #911GT3R No. 117 has retired from the race

— Porsche Motorsport (@PorscheRaces) July 29, 2018

Note that the No. 8 Bentley remained in the pits for a long time before leaving, but Andy Soucek was forced to stop at the bottom of the Raidillon de l'Eau Rouge, before being pushed backwards into the pit lane by the marshals. The abandonment seems almost complete for the car.

Audi and BMW continue their fight

In the general classification with just over six hours to go, the No. 6 BMW M3 GT99 – ROWE Racing of Nick Catsburg led the proceedings at the restart ahead of the Mercedes-AMG GT3 n°4 – Mercedes-AMG Team Black Falcon of Luca Stolz and the Audi R8 LMS GT3 n°25 – Audi Sport Team Saintéloc of Frédéric Vervisch.

Philipp Eng (BMW M6 GT3 n°34 – Walkenhorst Motorsport) overtook Jordan Pepper (Bentley Continental GT3 n°7 – Team M-Sport) then Kelvin van der Linde (Audi R8 LMS GT3 n°29 – Montaplast by Land Motorsport) to take fourth place.

But the implementation of a brief Full Course Yellow to clear debris on the track was used to return to the pits for the leading #6 BMW M3 GT99 and the #3 Mercedes-AMG GT4, leaving Frédéric Vervisch (Audi R8 LMS GT3 n°25) in the lead with around forty seconds ahead of the BMW M6 GT3 n°34.