ROWE BMW Out Front After 18 Hours

ROWE Racing held a narrow lead over Scherer Sport PHX with a quarter race distance remaining in the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa.

BMW factory driver Philipp Eng took the No. 98 BMW M4 GT3 to the lead of the race by passing the No. 17 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II of Luca Engstler on the run down to Eau Rouge.

The BMW is running out of sequence with the majority of the top ten after it pitted just after a brief Full Course Yellow at the end of Hour 17.

The caution was required to recover the No. 89 Akkodis ASP Team Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, which stopped on track near the entry to Eau Rouge.

Eng is expected to pit the No. 98 BMW soon at the end of his stint, which will cycle the No. 17 Audi back to the lead of the race.

Scherer Sport PHX has extended its advantage over the No. 40 Audi Sport Tresor Orange 1, which ran in third place with Ricardo Feller at the wheel.

Behind the Swiss driver, Porsche squads Manthey EMA and Rutronik Racing have been engaged in a lengthy battle that saw the two cars swap places at several points.

Rutronik initially gained the upper hand when Laurin Heinrich’s No. 96 Porsche 911 GT3 R overtook Kevin Estre for third place.

Estre kept the gap to Heinrich to under a second, which then allowed Julien Andlauer to vault back ahead when both cars pitted and Thomas Preining was installed behind the wheel of the Rutronik machine.

Raffaele Marciello sat in sixth place aboard the No. 88 Akkodis ASP Mercedes-AMG, ahead of the GetSpeed-operated Al Manar Racing entry in the hands of Fabian Schiller.

The No. 5 Optimum Motorsport McLaren 720S GT3 Evo continued to lead Gold Cup in eighth overall, with Valentino Rossi and Frederic Vervisch completing the top ten.