24H Spa Red Flagged after Accident at Blanchimont

The TotalEnergies 24 Hours of Spa has been red-flagged with just under nine and a half hours on the clock in response to an accident for Matthew Payne at Blanchimont.

Payne’s No. 16 Porsche 911 GT3 R run by Earl Bamber Motorsport left the road at the exit of the fast left-hander. The cause and nature of the accident are unclear, but SRO Motorsports Group has stated that the driver is OK and has been taken to the on-site medical center for checks.

The race was already running under Full Course Yellow conditions when it was halted and cars were ordered to the pits to be placed under parc ferme conditions.

At the time of the stoppage, Nick Yelloly led the race in the No. 98 ROWE Racing BMW M4 GT3, shortly after a round of pit stops for some of the front-runners which had not fully shaken out when the FCY occurred.

Raffaele Marciello led at the nine-hour mark after ROWE brought its BMW in for an off-sequence pit stop during a safety car phase that was caused by Alfred Renauer spinning his Herberth Motorsport Porsche into the left-side barriers exiting Blanchimont.

Marciello and the several other drivers who didn’t pit as early as Farfus then started to come in just before the most recent FCY period, which turned into a red flag.