Optimum McLaren Leads 12H Spa into Overnight Intervention

Optimum Motorsport’s No. 77 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo led the Michelin 12H Spa-Francorchamps at the overnight intervention after taking the lead in the final ten minutes.

Salman Owega drove the car that he shares with Harry George and Freddie Tomlinson across the line to complete the opening five-and-a-half hours of the race in first place, over a minute-and-a-half ahead of the No. 2 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II of HAAS RT.

The HAAS RT entry led the GT3-Am field ahead of Comtoyou Racing’s No. 40 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo, which finished third overall.

Owega set the fastest lap in the final few moment of the race to extend his advantage on the rest of the field.

Optimum’s McLaren, which led the start of race from pole, decided to pit in the opening few laps after the first Code 60 caution period of the race. This put the British team on an alternative pit strategy to much of the field from early on.

Optimum, which is the only team to compete with a full Semi-Pro lineup, moved back up the field to sit comfortably in the top three for much of the opening part of the 12H Spa.

The race, which was marred by a total of 11 Code 60 periods, was neutralized in the final 30 minutes after a heavy shunt for the sister No. 40 Comtoyou Aston Martin.

Both Optimum and the Comtoyou No. 41 car pitted immediately following the incident, coming out second and first, respectively.

The Comtoyou entry, which held the lead for much of the race, decided to pit once more just before the pit lane closed in the final ten minutes of the event.

This late-notice stop means they will have a full tank of fuel when the race resumes on Sunday.

All of the cars in the race are parked overnight under parc fermé conditions, meaning they retain the same fuel load from the day before when they restart the race on Sunday morning.

This puts the Comtoyou No. 41 car in a strong position to move up the field in the second part of the 12-hour event as it has more fuel than the cars around it.

Crucially, Comtoyou also only campaigned its Am-rated drivers in the opening five-and-a-half hours of the event. Nicolas Baert, its Semi-Pro driver, still has his entire three-hour drive time to complete on Sunday.

HAAS RT’s No. 21 sister Audi R8 finished the race in fourth ahead of the first 992 Class entry of QMMF by HRT Performance. The Qatari-backed HRT team’s No. 974 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup headed the overall 992 field and the 992-Am standings, 7.335 seconds ahead of the No. 921 Mühlner Motorsport Porsche.

Mühlner had led the 992 Class after a lengthy back-and-forth fight with the No. 909 Red Camel-Jordans.nl Porsche, but the QMMF by HRT entry took the lead when Mühlner decided to pit in the final minutes of the race.

Proton Competition’s No. 73 Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo led the GT3 Pro-Am leaderboard in seventh place overall. Reigning champions Proton led the race early on with its Pro driver Robert de Haan, but dropped off the pace after its Am-rated drivers took over driving duties.

Vortex headed the GTX standings with its No. 701 Vortex 2.0, while Not Only Motorsport’s Ligier JS2 R led the TCE-TCX class into the overnight break.

The final six-and-a-half hours of the Michelin 12H Spa-Francorchamps will start at 10:30 a.m local time (4:30 a.m ET) with live coverage on Creventic Motorsports TV YouTube channel featuring Radio Show Limited commentary.

Results: Race Part 1