Audi leads the 24 Hours of Spa after the first quarter of the race

Right on the opening lap, a serious accident occurred at the exit of Pouhon, involving both Walkenhorst Aston Martins, Ariel Levi in the Attempto Audi and Christian Hahn in the Paradine Competition BMW, with several other cars also caught up in the debris. Jamie Day was able to continue the race after several repairs.

Due to debris on the track, the race was neutralised twice in the minutes following the restart.

After around 70 minutes, Alex Arkin Aka lost his left rear wheel, which was then struck by Gabriele Piana’s WINWARD Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3. A neutralisation was called to recover the Audi and the wheel.

After two hours, the race was neutralised again when Hiroshi Hamaguchi, in the Tsunami GT Porsche 911 GT3 R, ended up in the gravel trap at the exit of the Fagnes and had to be recovered.

After the restart, Arthur Leclerc spun into the barrier in the Speakers’ Corner section in the AF Corse Ferrari, but was able to continue the race, albeit with damage to the rear. The Monegasque driver had been spun round by Carrie Schreiner.

The GetSpeed lead car was forced to retire after three and a half hours of racing. Götz collided with Alfredo Hernandez Ortega’s Grupo Prom Mercedes-AMG GT3. Both cars retired with suspension problems.

After four and a half hours, race leader Nicklas Nielsen in the AF Corse Ferrari suffered a puncture at the exit of Bus Stop and had to crawl back to the pits at a slow pace. The car lost a lot of time due to the slow lap into the pits and the additional stop.

After six hours of racing, the Eastalent Racing Audi driven by Simon Reicher, Christopher Haase and Markus Winkelhock led the race thanks to a different strategy.

Second place was also secured by a different strategy, with the WRT BMW M4 GT3 driven by Jordan Pepper, Kelvin van der Linde and Charles Weerts. The Mann-Filter Mamba driven by Maro Engel, Lucas Auer and Luca Stolz.

The race was marred by numerous penalties for offences relating to blue flags, track limits and full course yellow.