ROWE BMW Leads at Spa With Six Hours Completed

ROWE Racing led the TotalEnergies 24 Hours of Spa after six hours, with Nicky Catsburg moving ahead of Davide Rigon when the Iron Lynx Ferrari driver pitted right before the milestone.

Rigon’s No. 71 Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 had been holding off a lead of less than a second over Catsburg, and looked set to claim the maximum of 12 Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup points for leading at one-quarter distance.

Rigon was actually ahead as the clock ticked over six hours, but he pitted at the end of that same lap.

With the intermediate classification taken at the end of that lap, Rigon lost out by three seconds as he slowed at pit entry, while Catsburg charged through for the maximum score shared with his co-drivers Nick Yelloly and Augusto Farfus.

Rigon, Daniel Serra and Antonio Fuoco still claimed the Endurance Cup points lead, however, by ranking in second, one place ahead of Daniel Juncadella, Raffaele Marciello and Jules Gounon whose Akkodis ASP Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo sat in third.

Varying strategies put various cars into contention for the lead in the early darkness hours, with the No. 55 AMG Team GruppeM Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo currently driven by Maro Engel one of the cars that made its way to the head of the field.

With Mikael Grenier at the wheel, the team jumped to the head of the back at the start of the fourth hour, having opted to make a short stop under a full course yellow.

Grenier initially fell under pressure from the No. 221 GPX Martini Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R, before Michael Christensen lost second place to the No. 98 ROWE Racing BMW M4 GT3 of Nick Yelloly.

Out front, the No. 55 Mercedes, now in the hands of Maro Engel, briefly lost the lead to an off-sequence Marco Mapelli aboard the No. 6 K-PAX Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo.

Mapelli, however, suffered a right rear puncture mere minutes later, which allowed Engel to recapture the race lead.

It remained there when the German, along with the No. 71 Ferrari of Antonio Fuoco, pitted under a fifth full course yellow caused by a stationary No. 10 Boutsen Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II of Adam Eteki.

Eteki’s co-driver Karim Ojjeh had caused the previous caution after hitting the wall coming out of turn 11.

Eteki’s stoppage briefly promoted the No. 98 BMW, now in the hands of Catsburg to the head of the field until the Dutchman also made his stop, which cycled Rigon to the head of the field.

Catsburg then closed in on Rigon and the pair battled it out until the end of the hour.

Gounon sat third overall in the No. 88 Mercedes-AMG, having previously run as high as second before the Frenchman was overtaken by Catsburg briefly before the caution that allowed the Dutchman to assume the race lead.

Toksport WRT’s No. 100 Porsche of Julien Andlauer managed to climb up to fourth place, but a pit stop late in the hour saw the Frenchman drop out of the points.

Kevin Estre rose to fourth for Porsche squad GPX, while Miguel Molina was fifth in the No. 51 Ferrari, ahead of Dinamic Motorsport’s Klaus Bachler, Mercedes-AMG Team GetSpeed’s Steijn Schothorst and KCMG’s Dennis Olsen.

Marvin Kirchhofer rounded out the top ten aboard the No. 38 JOTA McLaren 720S GT3, just ahead of Engel, who fell back after an off-sequence pitstop halfway through hour six.

In Pro-Am, Herberth Motorsport’s No. 24 Porsche of Nico Menzel assumed the class lead from the No. 188 Garage 59 McLaren of Henrique Chaves.

Arjun Maini led Gold Cup aboard the No. 5 Haupt Racing Team Mercedes-AMG, while Silver Cup was led by Emil Frey Racing’s Tuomas Tujula in the No. 14 Lamborghini.

Five cars have retired from the race after six hours, with the No. 12 Tresor by Car Collection Audi the most high-profile car to fall by the wayside due to damage from contact with another car.

It joins the No. 777 Al Manar Racing by HRT Mercedes, No. 97 Beechdean AMR Aston Martin Vantage GT3, No. 91 Allied Racing Porsche and No. 26 Sainteloc Junior Team Audi as official retirements.

Positions After Six Hours