Ferrari Still Leads After Three Hours But Faces Penalty

The pole-winning No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari continued to lead the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa as the race hit the three-hour mark.

Alessio Rovera maintained the car’s position at the top of the leaderboard after Nicklas Nielsen and then Tommaso Mosca had completed their stints in the 296 GT3 Evo through a chaotic early phase of the race interrupted by two safety cars and five full-course yellows.

But the Ferrari had been awarded a 15-second time penalty for exceeding the 80 kph speed limit during an FCY, which it was due to take at the next round of pit stops.

Mosca had extended the Ferrari’s lead to as much as 14 seconds over Benjamin Goethe in Garage 59 No. 58 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo during the second hour.

The field was then closed up during the second safety car in the opening minutes of hour three.

Rovera held an advantage of approximately seven seconds over Louis Prette in the Gold Cup McLaren entry after the race went green, before extending his advantage to 13.6 seconds.

Third place was held by the AF-run Selected Car Racing Ferrari driven by Malte Ebdrup, the Gold Cup entry closing the gap to the McLaren from ten to less than three seconds during his stint.

Jules Gounon was right on Ebdrup’s tail in the No. 3 Verstappen Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo run by 2 Seas Motorsport, while Lucas Auer followed closely behind in fifth aboard Winward Racing’s No. 48 Mercedes-AMG.

Auer had taken over from Luca Stolz in seventh position, but quickly moved past the No. 12 GetSpeed Mercedes-AMG and then the No. 59 Garage 59 McLaren.

The McLaren ran sixth in Joseph Loake’s hands, 2.6 seconds behind the Austrian, on three hours.

A charging Raffaele Marciello had just moved into seventh, the Italian forcing his No. 98 ROWE Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO past Fabio Scherer’s No. 64 Haupt Racing Team Ford Mustang GT3 EVO at the Bus Stop Chicane.

Henrique Chaves held ninth in the No. 34 Walkenhorst Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo despite the car having made six pitstops.

Walkenhorst had made a series of ‘short pitstops’ while damage picked up in the opening lap accident was attended to.

That extended its opening stint into an FCY, which gained the car significant time.

The car had the threat of a drive-through penalty for an FCY speeding infringement, which remained under investigation, hanging over it.

Porsche returnee Frederic Makowiecki was running tenth in the No. 22 Schumacher CLRT Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo.

The Bronze Cup lead was held by Eddie Cheever III driving the No. 93 Ziggo Sport Tempesta Racing Porsche, which was running 14th overall.

Alessandro Balzan led the way in the Silver Cup in the No. 45 Rinaldi Racing Ferrari in 15th, while Joel Sturm was the highest-placed Pro-Am Cup runner in 18th driving the No. 8 Car Collection Motorsport Porsche.