FIA GT Championship

FIA GT Spa 24: Race Hour 16 and 17

© Planetlemans - Marcel ten Caat

We are entering the 16th hour of the race now, while the Safety Car is still on the track. No footage available yet. Guess that getting the BMS DBR9 out of the fences is taking some time.
Now let’s see what the weather in the morning will bring us. A look outside tells us there will be no nice sunrise stills available.

07:05- BMS Aston’s official retirement announced.

07:07- Van de Poele and Ramos bringing the two Vitaphone Maserati’s together.

07:08- Last lap of the Safety Car. "Eye witnesses" say that the BMS car is actually an Aston or a Martin, it is that heavily damaged.

07:11: Safety Car is gone and the race is continuing at full speed again.

07:13- Drive Through penalty for car number 2. Vitaphone with Stephane Lemeret at the wheel. Will find out the reason for it later on.

07:15- Lemeret loses 3rd position to Bouvy because of this Penalty.

07:25- Top 7 overall is a total Corvette-Maserati combat.

07:29- The Aston Martin has found a place next to the damaged Scuderia Ecosse Ferrari. Team has covered it immediately. Front and rear end are damaged. Wheels and engine are off the chassis. Second time this chassis has suffered very heavy damage.

07:38- After being in the pit for several minutes the nr 18 Corvette has rejoined.

07:44- With the darkness completely gone by now the race has settled a bit after the Aston Martin shunt. Carsport Holland has completed 378 laps, the nr 1 Maserati is one lap behind, PK Carsport 2 laps. In GT2 it is Porsche that is still leading the race. The nr 51 Ferrari 430 is second, but two laps down. Places three, four and five are Porsche again.

07:54- As expected it is still raining here. Laptimes are now down to the 2:34-2:45 region for the GT1 cars.

08:00- Eight hours remaining. Carsport Holland is still in the lead…but there is a long way to go.

08:01- The safety car comes out again. There has been a crash at the top of the Raidillon.

08:02- It is the nr 51 Ferrari 430 GT2 that has gone off! Rui Aguas has crashed the car while being in second place. Will this lead to a Porsche 1-2-3 in GT2?

08:04- Rui Aguas is okay, the car is not…Sean Edwards who was five laps down on the nr 51 car will inherit the third place in GT2 soon.

08:08- The safety car is still out as the track is being cleared. Taking the nr 51 out of the GT2 standings there are now four Porsches ahead of four Ferrari’s.

08:20- Green flag…

08:23- Edwards is now on the same lap as Aguas. The next time he crosses the line he’s officially third.

08:26- Done…Pedro Lamy has unlapped himself and is now on the same lap as the Carsport Holland Corvette.

08:33- Lamy is 7 seconds a lap quicker at the moment. The gap is now back to two minutes.

08:40- Fabrizio Gollin is still in the lead, but Pedro Lamy is coming back rapidly. The gap is now 1:42.562!

08:43- G&A Racing nr 105 in trouble? Its last lap was 3:14.927, losing 25 seconds on the other cars in G2.

08:47- 1 minute and 26 seconds is the remaining gap between Vitaphone Racing and Carsport Holland. Are they getting nervous at Carsport already? Last lap Lamy took back 9 seconds!

08:49- Another ten seconds gone…

08:51- 1:08.610 is the gap now…Lamy is much faster in the rain.

08:53- Lamy has had a ’slow’ lap. Only four seconds quicker this time.

08:54- More and more rain coming down. The Playteam Maserati’s are in the box as well as the top two GT2 cars.

08:56- Lamy is exactly a minute behind the Carsport Holland Corvette. Impressive driving by the Portuguese driver.

08:58- Lamy into the pit lane for new tyres…