Belgian Audi Club Team WRT Leads Spa 24 At Halfway Mark

At the halfway point of the Total 24 Hours of Spa it was the No. 1 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT Audi R8 LMS ultra of René Rast, Laurens Vanthoor and Markus Winkelhock in the lead, taking the 12 points available at the 12-hour mark.

Lap times began to come down as it got cooler and on lap 205 it was René Rast who improved the fastest lap of the race, setting a 2:20.546.

The lead changed again at just after the end of the 11th hour, as Palttala passed Vanthoor as the Belgian driver left the pits.

Half an hour later the lead changed back to the No. 1 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT Audi again, when Palttala made his stop. On his last laps Palttala lost nearly two seconds a lap on the charging Belgian.

At 4.10pm the safety car was back on track again, as Ahmad Al Harthy crashed the No. 44 Oman Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage at Blanchimont. The safety car stayed out until 4.29am, before releasing the field again.

Vanthoor held on to the lead to score maximum points, while the No. 77 BMW Z4 GT3 was second fastest, ahead of Frank Stippler