Shock for Austrian Audi team: All lap times disallowed

Christopher Haase, Markus Winkelhock and Simon Reicher will have to start the 24 Hours of Spa from the back of the field. All of the Eastalent Racing Audi’s qualifying times have been struck off. The Austrian team had initially qualified for the Superpole in 19th place.

After qualifying, the stewards discovered that the data logger on the Audi had not been switched on. During every race, qualifying session and practice session in the GT World Challenge Europe, the logger must be switched on for the entire session.

During the hearing before the race stewards, a team representative explained that the mechanics had assumed the data logger was correctly connected, but that it may not have been fully secured, meaning it could have come loose due to vibrations. Regardless of the cause, the data logger did not function as required throughout the qualifying session.