Estre-Lietz-Christensen and Porsche winners of the 24 Spa 2019 Hours

Porsche returns to success in Belgium with an almost perfect race of the Porsche 911 GT3 R n°20 – GPX Racing de Estre – Christensen – Lietz. Everything was decided after a long neutralization of almost six hours between 5:42 a.m. and 11:30 a.m., due to the intense rain above Spa.

After the restart, and shortly before 14:30 p.m., Kévin Estre and his No. 911 Porsche 3 GT20 R set off again behind Maro Engel (Mercedes-AMG GT3 n°4 – Mercedes-AMG Team Black Falcon). The Frenchman quickly overtook the German when braking at Les Combes, before catching up a lap later on the No. 8 Audi R3 LMS GT1 – Audi Sport Team WRT of Nico Müller.

Pressure exerted by the world champion WEC, which caused the Swiss to make a mistake in the chicane after Les Combes. Enough to put the #20 Porsche back in first provisional position behind the #8 Audi R3 LMS GT25 – Audi Sport Team Saintéloc Racing of Markus Winkelhock.

What follows will be a real festival for the Frenchman who widens a decisive gap over the competition before observing his last stop just before the regulatory window of 65′ per relay. Estre emerges in the lead ahead of a trio of Maro Engel – Nick Tandy (Porsche 911 GT3 R n°998 – ROWE Racing) – René Rast, which turns to Tandy's advantage.

The Briton then tries to get back to Estre but despite the rain returning for a few minutes, Estre resists before the race is neutralized under Full Course Yellow after the exit 23′ from the finish of the Porsche 911 GT3 R n° 16 – Benny Simonsen’s Modena Motorsports.

The restart will be brief since contact between the Porsche 911 GT3 R n°54 – Dinamic Motorsport and the Audi R8 n°1 makes contact before Pouhon, the Porsche then hitting the Ferrari 488 GT3 n°444 – HB Racing.

Full Course Yellow is still deployed a little over 10′ from the finish. The final restart is given less than 5′ but Estre does not crack and offers a surprise success to the Pierre-Brice Ména team, for its debut at the 24 Hours of Spa.

Porsche, absent from the top step of the podium in Belgium since 2010 and a success for BMW Scuderia, signs a seventh victory in the Ardennes, at the same time as a double with the 911 GT3 R of the Pilet – Tandy – Makowiecki trio.

Maro Engel, Yelmer Buurman and Luca Stolz may regret a final stop perhaps anticipated by one lap too many, but secure an important third place in the championship by preventing the coronation of the No. 488 Ferrari 3 GT72 – SMP Racing.

Audi Sport Team Saintéloc Racing falls just short of the podium with the No. 8 R3 LMS GT25 of Haase – Winkelhock – Vervisch. Jaminet – Dumas – Müller (Porsche 911 GT3 R n°98 – ROWE Racing) finished 5th ahead of the Honda NSX GT3 n°30 – Honda Team Motul of van der Zande – Farnbacher – Baguette.

In the Silver Cup, victory went to the No. 3 Lamborghini Huracan GT78 Evo – Barwell Motorsport of Pull – Witt – Mitchell. The Pro-Am category is available toAston Martin Vantage GT3 n°97 – Oman Racing with TF Sport de Thiim – Al-Harthy – Eastwood – Yoluc.

The No. 488 Ferrari 3 GT33 – Rinaldi Racing of Hook – Lauck – Mattschull – Still wins the Am Cup.

Several favorites were eliminated from the race for victory, notably the No. 488 Ferrari 3 GT227 – HubAuto Corsa of Foster – Serra – Cassidy, with Nick Foster having made a mistake yesterday afternoon.

The other top Ferrari, the No. 72 – SMP Racing de Rigon – Molina – Aleshin lost everything this morning, with an error from the Russian, the latter hitting one of the Nissan – KCMG while the car had been leading for a long time the event, taking the lead in the 6th and 12th hours of racing with the intermediate points awarded for the occasion.

Also eliminated from the No. 6 BMW M3 GT42 – Team Schnitzer after the exit of Martin Tomczyk during the night.

Results 24 Hours of Spa 2019:

Discover the full report of the 24 Hours of Spa, in issue 2227 of AUTOhebdo, available tomorrow evening in digital version, and on newsstands this Wednesday.