FIA GT2 European Cup

Total 24H of Spa: BMW leads after six hours

© Planetlemans – Marcel ten Caat

After six hours BMW Motorsport is in the lead at the Total 24 Hours of Spa. The nr 79 BMW M3 E92 of Dirk Werner, Dirk Adorf and Dirk Müller was already one lap ahead of its nearest rivals. But not all went well for BMW Motorsport.

Having started from pole position the AF Corse ALD Team Vitaphone nr 2 Ferrari F430 GT2 was the quickest car in the opening stages of the race and quickly pulled away from the rest of the field. Bruni was able to keep the two BMW’s behind him.

After only three laps the nr 51 Phoenix Racing Audi R8 LMS came in with electronical problems, which meant it lost three laps before rejoining. Further down the field the Speedlover cars both crashed into the wall leaving the Belgian team with a lot of work.

Unfortunately for the AF Corse team the nr 2 collided with the nr 85 Gulf Lamborghini and it came in for repairs. It had dropped to eighth when it returned, with the two BMW’s now in the lead. In GT3 the nr 61 ProSpeed retired after hitting the other Gulf Lamborghini and we also lost the Aston Martin nr 63, the art car, with an engine failure.

In the third hour the safety car was deployed when the WRT Audi R8 LMS of Greg Franchi briefly caught fire at the end of the straight. At the front though the nr 79 BMW maintained its leading position and was now leading the ProSpeed Porsche nr 13 and the BMW nr 78. Ettore Bonaldi had to abandon his car on the Kemmel straight as the engine blew on the Reiter Lamborghini, while Phil Bastiaans dug into the gravel with the nr 4 ProSpeed Porsche.

Early into the fourth hour Müller passed Hooolzer and made it a BMW 1-2 again. Then the rain hit Spa-Francorchamps and several teams came in. At the end of the fourth hour BMS Scuderia was third behind the BMW’s.

Heavy rain than started to fall into the fifth hour and while most drivers opted to go to wets the two BMW’s and the nr 13 ProSpeed Porsche kept their slicks on. As a result the Porsche moved back into third overall at first, but soon dropped back to fifth after losing a lot of time against the cars on wets.

The BMW’s returned to the pit for the first time in 1.5 hours jus tinto the sixth hour. But soon after they had gone out the rain started to fall heavily again and soon after it started the nr 78 and 79 were back in.

Shortly after the pitstops by the BMW’s the nr 78 moved into the lead, only to return to the pit for a seventh time when Alzen reported an engine misfire. The car went into th box and lost several positions while being checked. When it returned it had dropped to tenth overall. BMS Scuderia Italia and IMSA Performance Matmut had moved into second and third.

And so as the clock showed it was 10 p.m. it was BMW leading…but only with one car.