Van der Linde Leads 24H Spa at Halfway

Sheldon van der Linde led the centenary edition of the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa at the halfway point after a call by Team WRT to remain on wet tires under changeable conditions.

The No. 32 BMW M4 GT3 ran in front of the No. 99 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II of Christopher Haase and Davide Rigon’s No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 after 12 hours of racing.

Van der Linde’s co-driver Charles Weerts took advantage of a call to remain on wet tires during the 11th hour to move up to the lead.

This came when a round of stops under caution, triggered by a spin into the gravel for Madpanda Motorsport’s Karol Basz, came in the midst of a spell of changeable weather conditions.

This led a majority of the front-running cars, including the race-leading No. 911 Pure Rxcing Porsche 911 GT3 R of Klaus Bachler, to pit for slick tires as it appeared track conditions were improving.

However, rain increased soon thereafter, at which point WRT opted to keep Weerts out on wet tires.

This allowed the Belgian to make rapid progress at the restart, charging up into second place behind the No. 3 GetSpeed Performance Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Yannick Mettler, who had taken the lead on a similar strategy.

Weerts passed Mettler not much later and van der Linde then retained the lead at the halfway point, although the South African came in to serve the team’s mandatory five-minute technical pitstop as the 12-hour mark hit.

Fabian Schiller held fourth in the No. 2 Mercedes-AMG, ahead of Joel Sturm and the No. 163 GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 of Jordan Pepper.

Tommaso Mosca led Bronze Cup in the No. 52 AF Corse Ferrari in seventh overall, closely followed by class rival Max Hofer in the No. 66 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi.

The overall top ten was completed by the No. 7 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo of Mattia Drudi and Maximilian Goetz in the No. 9 Boutsen VDS Mercedes-AMG.

Valentino Rossi ran just outside the top ten in the No. 46 BMW, having dropped back after serving a drive through penalty after contact with the No. 51 Ferrari earlier in the race.

The No. 998 ROWE Racing BMW, meanwhile, also lost ground from a contending position after it was also given a drive-through penalty for passing the red light at pit exit.

GetSpeed’s No. 3 Mercedes-AMG continued to lead Silver Cup, with the German manufacturer also out front in Gold Cup and Pro-Am with Al Manar Racing by GetSpeed and CrowdStrike by Riley, respectively.