Incidents Keep Front-Runners Close as Halfway Approaches

Separate incidents at Les Combes resulted in two safety car periods that kept the front-runners close together in the ninth and tenth hours at the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa.

Approaching the nine-hour mark, Kevin Estre pounced on Team WRT driver Dries Vanthoor at a restart to seize the lead for the Manthey EMA Porsche 911 GT3 R.

Estre powered his car past Vanthoor’s No. 32 BMW M4 GT3 out of La Source after the field had been released from a 24-minute Full Course Yellow and safety car intervention period, caused by a multi-car accident at Les Combes.

The No. 60 VSR Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2, the No. 4 CrowdStrike by Riley Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo and the ST Racing with Rinaldi Ferrari 296 GT3 all ended up beached in the gravel after contact between the VSR car and another Mercedes-AMG.

After a short burst of green flag running, the FCY signals and safety car — making its fifth appearance — returned at the start of the 10th hour.

Kerong Li spun the Leipert Motorsport Lamborghini at the exit of Les Combes and was collected by the Theeba Motorsport Mercedes-AMG driven by Yannick Mettler.

Unlike the other front-running Pro competitors, Estre and Thomas Preining elected not to pit during the FCY period and were at the head of the field for the next restart.

The No. 32 BMW led at the six-hour mark and Sheldon van der Linde stood about 11 seconds clear of his brother Kelvin in the Scherer Sport PHX Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II before they swapped positions due to a WRT pit stop under a seventh-hour FCY.

That third safety car of the race was caused by an accident for the Iron Dames Lamborghini of Doriane Pin at the exit of Blanchimont.

As Scherer PHX stayed out during the FCY, WRT came in but remained in second by electing to perform a short pit stop, which carries a maximum refueling connection time, and the South African siblings ran nose-to-tail after the restart in the eighth hour.

WRT then moved back ahead after the next round of green flag pit stops shook out, with Sheldon van der Linde posting a new fastest lap of the race in the BMW that he shares with Vanthoor and Charles Weerts.

The Scherer PHX Audi, meanwhile, lost positions on-track to Estre and the ROWE Racing duo of Marco Wittmann and Dan Harper, as the turbocharged BMWs came to the fore in the cooler night conditions.

Harper had only just overtaken his teammate Wittmann for third when the first of two Les Combes incidents occurred after eight and a half hours.

The front-runners remaining close together kept an open scenario heading towards the halfway mark when the second set of Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup points will be handed out.

Scherer Sport PHX remained in the hunt, as did the No. 46 BMW from Team WRT, Audi Sport Tresor Orange 1 and defending winner Akkodis ASP with its Mercedes-AMG.