Battle For The Lead at Spa Between Audi and BMW Continues

After ten hours of racing at Spa-Francorchamps it is still a battle for the lead between Belgian Audi Club Team WRT and BMW Sports Trophy Team Marc VDS.

The No. 77 BMW Z4 GT3 of Lucas Luhr, Dirk Werner and Markus Palttala is in the lead after 191 laps have been completed, but only after the No. 1 Audi R8 LMS ultra of René Rast, Laurens Vanthoor and Markus Winkelhock came in for its ninth stop of the race at the end of lap 190.

The No. 3 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT Audi R8 LMS ultra of Christopher Mies, Frank Stippler and James Nash is in third place, 38 seconds behind the BMW, while the No. 26 Sainteloc Racing Audi is in fourth place after ten hours, a further 12 seconds behind.

Scuderia Villorba Corse is the Pro-Am class leader, the No. 90 Ferrari of Andrea Montermini, Francesco Castellacci, Stefano Gai and Andrea Rizzoli leads the No. 53 of Andrea Bertolini, Marco Cioci and 2012 Pro-Am Cup champions Louis Machiels and Niek Hommerson.

Sport Garage is in charge in the Gentlemen Trophy, the No. 42 Ferrari 458 Italia leads the No. 228 Delahaye Racing Porsche by 23 seconds.

Around 1.30pm two Pro Cup entries were officially retired from the race. The No. 66 BMW Sports Trophy Team Marc VDS BMW Z4 GT3 retired after hitting a rabbit, causing more damage to the front of the BMW driven by Maxime Martin, Augusto Farfus and Jörg Muller.

Minutes later the No. 99 ART Grand Prix McLaren MP4-12C GT3 of Kevin Korjus, Kevin Estre and Andy Soucek was also announced as an official retirement, one hour after it had slowed and then stopped out on the circuit.

Meanwhile McLaren GT confirmed Tim Mullen has been cleared by the doctors and has been released from hospital, while Beechdean AMR’s Andrew Howard is also in good shape following his shunt earlier on.