GetSpeed in Front Through Period of Multiple Incidents

Mercedes-AMG Team GetSpeed led the TotalEnergies 24 Hours of Spa at the three-hour mark after a chaotic early period of the race that included three Full Course Yellow periods and two safety cars.

The first safety car of the event occurred near the start of the third hour, after morphing from a Full Course Yellow period to retrieve Jens Liebhauser’s Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo which had become stranded in the Bruxelles gravel.

Two more interventions took place in the next hour of racing due to more incidents in the busy 66-car field.

The first, which came after just three minutes of green flag running, came after Leipert Motorsport’s Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo ended up in the esses gravel due to a tap from behind, while Team WRT’s No. 33 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II was beached at Malmedy.

The next green flag period lasted 16 minutes until the No. 97 Silver Cup-class Beechdean AMR Aston Martin Vantage GT3 went off at Les Combes.

As the initial FCY was called, Al Faisal Al Zubair’s Silver Cup-leading Al Manar Racing by HRT Mercedes-AMG struck the rear of Allied-Racing’s Porsche 911 GT3 R, causing terminal damage to both cars.

At the head of the field, the No. 2 GetSpeed Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo took the lead early in the second hour when Luca Stolz muscled past Dinamic Motorsport Porsche driver Come Ledogar on the run down to Eau Rouge.

Ledogar inherited the leading No. 54 Porsche from Klaus Bachler, but dropped behind Mercedes-AMG drivers Stolz and Raffaele Marciello at the same section of track.

Stolz handed the GetSpeed Mercedes-AMG over to Goetz after two hours, while the reigning DTM champion kept ahead through the next two safety car periods.

Goetz held a two-second lead over Marciello’s Akkodis ASP co-driver Daniel Juncadella shortly before the front-runners made their third pit stops of the race after three hours.

Thomas Preining stood third in the Dinamic Porsche, ahead of Daniel Serra in the No. 71 Iron Lynx Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 and Patrick Niederhauser for Audi Sport Team Sainteloc.

GPX Martini Racing’s Porsche moved ahead of Dinamic on-track courtesy of a Kevin Estre braking move into La Source, but the 2019-winning team made a pit stop during the third FCY, putting it on a different strategy and returning the No. 54 car to third.

Another high-profile pitter under the slow period was the No. 32 Audi Sport Team WRT R8.

Sky-Tempesta Racing took the Gold Cup lead from Winward Racing courtesy of Eddie Cheever III overtaking Liebhauser, whose Mercedes-AMG later ended up in the gravel after a tap from the No. 188 Garage 59 McLaren 720S GT3.

Cheever’s car went on to encounter trouble of its own, when Jonathan Hui bizarrely dived underneath and made contact with Antares Au’s Herberth Motorsport Porsche into La Source under safety car conditions.

That generated a drive-through penalty and promoted Boutsen Ginion Audi driver Antoine Leclerc to the Gold lead.

Pro-Am has been controlled so far by the No. 24 Herberth Motorsport Porsche, while SPS Automotive Performance has led the way in Bronze Cup so far.

Al Zubair’s collision with the back of the Allied-Racing Porsche at Stavelot caused the Silver Cup lead to swing in favor of the No. 30 WRT Audi.