Auer Captures Lead in 24H Spa Opening Hour

Lucas Auer grabbed the lead of the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa by overtaking polesitter Franck Perera in the opening hour.

The Austrian, piloting the No. 48 Mercedes-AMG Team Mann-Filter Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, dived up the inside of Perera’s No. 163 GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 at the Bus Stop chicane after 25 minutes of racing to take the lead.

Auer then maintained his position at the head of the field through the round of opening pitstops, which took place under Full Course Yellow roughly halfway through the hour.

The race’s first intervention was triggered when Dustin Blattner became stranded in the gravel at Fagnes aboard the No. 97 Rutronik Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R after suspected contact with the No. 52 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3.

Perera, meanwhile, dropped to fourth behind the No. 51 Ferrari of Davide Rigon and Luca Stolz’ No. 2 Mercedes-AMG Team GetSpeed entry after a pitstop that was 15 seconds slower than the three leading cars.

He remained ahead of a pair of Gold Cup-leading Audis in the hands of Gilles Magnus and Glenn van Berlo and the No. 9 Boutsen VDS Mercedes-AMG of Thomas Drouet.

The remainder of the top ten was made up by the No. 77 Haupt Racing Team Mercedes-AMG of Arjun Maini, the No. 777 Al Manar by GetSpeed-entered example of Dominik Baumann and the No. 7 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo driven by Mattia Drudi.

The Bronze Cup lead was held by the twelfth-placed No. 188 Garage 59 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo of Marvin Kirchhoefer, while Aurelien Panis led Silver Cup in 29th overall for Boutsen VDS.

Indy Dontje sat out front in Pro-Am aboard the No. 16 Uno Racing Team with Landgraf Mercedes-AMG.