Heavy Rain Triggers Safety Car After Seven Hours

The arrival of heavy rain and thunder has brought the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa under safety car after seven hours of racing, with Joel Sturm leading for Pure Rxcing.

Sturm, piloting the No. 911 Porsche 911 GT3 R, ran ahead of the No. 9 Boutsen VDS Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Maximilian Goetz, with Daniel Juncadella third in the No. 130 Mercedes-AMG Team GruppeM machine.

Pure Rxcing was one of the teams to initially gamble on wet tires when rain first began to fall on Saturday evening, with Klaus Bachler making rapid early gains before dropping back behind slick-shod rivals.

However, as rain increased and other teams brought cars in for wets, the No. 911 car shot to the lead of the race.

Race control initially appeared willing to restart the race before then announcing that the safety car would remain on track due to the weather.

A Mercedes-AMG spokesperson, meanwhile, stated that the German brand’s drivers reported encountering aquaplaning behind the safety car.

Frank Bird sat fourth in the No. 60 2 Seas Motorsport Mercedes-AMG, with Dries Vanthoor completing the top five for Team WRT.

Ricardo Feller ran in sixth behind the wheel of the No. 99 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II as David Pittard and Luca Stolz held seventh and eighth for Walkenhorst Motorsport and Mercedes-AMG Team GetSpeed, respectively.

Nicki Thiim’s No. 7 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo and the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 of Davide Rigon completed the top ten.

Meanwhile, a number of notable cars have fallen by the wayside for various reasons.

The No. 98 ROWE Racing BMW has spent multiple hours in the pits with a reported water pressure issue, while the No. 992 HubAuto Racing Porsche has retired after a suspension failure pitched Patrick Pilet into a spin at Raidillon.

The No. 888 Triple Eight JMR Mercedes-AMG, which featured Intercontinental GT Challenge points leader Prince Jefri Ibrahim as part of the lineup, crashed out of the race behind an earlier safety car with Martin Konrad at the wheel.