Martin Ahead of Soulet With Six Hours Remaining

Photo: BMW Motorsport

The Total 24 Hours of Spa has turned into a two-way battle between the No. 99 ROWE Racing BMW M6 GT3 and No. 8 M-Sport Bentley Continental GT3 with six hours to go.

Maxime Martin holds a narrow 11-second lead over Maxime Soulet, which has lost more than three minutes so far due to three drive-through penalties for drive-time and pit lane infractions.

Soulet, however, has closed the gap to Martin, from nearly 40 seconds, in what’s been a comeback charge for the Bentley driver.

However, the Bentley has been reported to the stewards again, this time for exceeding track limits.

The No. 6 Audi Sport Team Phoenix Audi R8 LMS of Christopher Mies runs in third, after pitting for its mandatory five-minute technical pit stop in the 16th hour, while under the race’s 9th Full Course Yellow.

It rejoined in third after leading the race at the point. All leading cars have now served the mandatory service stop.

There was trouble for the race-contending No. 7 Bentley of Steven Kane, which lost six laps due to power steering issues earlier in the 16th hour. It dropped the car outside of the top-30 overall.

The No. 98 ROWE BMW has climbed up to fifth, ahead of the No. 88 AMG-Team AKKA ASP Mercedes-AMG GT3 in sixth, after a steady comeback for the French team.

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John