Calado Leads After Hour 16; WRT Audis Collide

James Calado leads the TotalEnergies 24 Hours of Spa on the pitstop cycle with 16 hours of racing completed, while Team WRT’s two Pro cars collided and Iron Lynx’s other Pro entry was delayed by a penalty.

Calado’s No. 51 Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 sat at the head of the field as the hour ticked over, having moved ahead after a pitstop by KCMG’s Laurens Vanthoor.

The No. 47 Porsche 911 GT3 R, which started the race in last place, hit the lead by overtaking the No. 71 Iron Lynx Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 of Davide Rigon.

Rigon had himself moved to the front when the No. 98 ROWE Racing BMW M4 GT3 served its mandatory technical pitstop with Augusto Farfus at the wheel.

Tandy was then able to pick off the Italian into La Source, capturing the race lead and remained there when Laurens Vanthoor took the car over.

Vanthoor came in for a scheduled stop a few minutes before the end of hour sixteen, which has temporarily cycled Calado to the lead.

The Belgian dropped to sixth place, behind ROWE Racing’s Nick Yelloly, AMG Team Akkodis ASP’s Raffaele Marciello, as well as Maro Engel and Dan Harper.

Yelloly and Marciello engaged in battle following a brief full course yellow for Silver Cup leader Alain Valente.

Marciello initially beat Yelloly out when both cars pitted under yellow, only for the Briton to regain the place when Marciello ran wide and through the gravel out of turn 16.

Rigon, meanwhile, encountered a setback when he was handed a drive through penalty for a full course yellow infringement, which has dropped him outside the top five overall.

Iron Lynx was not the only squad to suffer setbacks in the early hours of Sunday morning, as Team WRT has seen its No. 32 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II eliminated following contact between Charles Weerts and the No. 46 sister car driven by Nico Mueller.

The hit at La Source has ended the race for last year’s second-place finisher, while the No. 46 has dropped to the lower end of the top 20.

Team WRT leads the Silver Cup in an Audi one-two ahead of Attempto Racing, with Haupt Racing Team losing the class lead after Valente’s stoppage aboard the No. 4 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo.

The No. 83 Iron Dames Ferrari driven by Michelle Gatting leads Gold Cup, with Alessio Picariello at the head of Pro-Am aboard the No. 24 Herberth Motorsport Porsche.