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ROWE Mercedes Continues to Lead after 9 Hours

ROWE Racing lead 24H Spa at ten-hour mark…

Photo: ROWE Racing

Photo: ROWE Racing

The No. 99 ROWE Racing Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 of Nico Bastian, Stef Dusseldorp and Daniel Juncadella continues to lead the Total 24 Hours of Spa at the ten-hour mark, with currently five different brands at the head of the field.

After the No. 1 WRT Audi lost five laps due to mistake by Laurens Vanthoor, the ROWE Mercedes has been at the front while being chased by the No. 45 Marc VDS BMW Z4 GT3 of Maxime Martin.

The Belgian closed down a one-minute gap to leader Nico Bastian during his double stint, but had to visit the pits before he could launch an attack on the German.

The race finally settled down, with only a couple of neutralizations during the past four hours. One of them was caused by a contact between the No. 21 Black Falcon Mercedes and No. 19 Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracán GT3, with the latter having to retire.

A short Full Course Yellow to recover the No. 35 Saintéloc Audi R8 LMS ultra, which suffered an engine failure, provided an opportunity for ROWE to come in almost half a stint early for a quick pitstop.

The No. 45 Marc VDS BMW did not pit during the neutralization, and so the gap got back up to around one minute.

Everything is still to play for, with seven different brands in the top-10, and positions changing all the time.

The No. 2 Audi Sport Team WRT Audi is now the only factory R8 LMS in the lead group, while the No. 58 Von Ryan McLaren 650S and No. 8 M-Sport Bentley are also still very much in the hunt.

AF Corse is still leading the Pro Am Cup with the No. 47 Ferrari 458 Italia, with Gianmaria Bruni running as high as second overall at a certain moment.

RESULTS: Hour 10

Vincent Wouters (@VinceWouters) is a Belgium-based sports car racing reporter, providing coverage primarily of the Blancpain GT Series.

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