The Bohemia Energy racing with Scuderia Praha Ferrari 488 GT3 (#11, Jiří Písařík / Josef Kral / Matteo Malucelli) currently leads the way after the first four hours of the 12H SPA, having completed 81 laps of the 7.004km Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in the process.
In contract to last month’s 12H MUGELLO, however, a frenetic opening to the second round of the 2019 European Championship has already seen 13 lead changes between six different cars.
Although the fight for the GT top spot remains tight, Scuderia Praha, which also qualified on pole position, believes there may is still pace left in the Ferrari.
“It was close, but I think it was not the maximum we can show,” Josef Kral explained to radiolemans.com’s Bruce Jones. “I hope so anyway because tomorrow is a long race! But we definitely can keep this pace, so I think we’ll see another strong performance tomorrow.”
After the overnight intervention, the GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracán GT3 (#63, Mirko Bortolotti / Christian Engelhart / Rolf Ineichen / Stefano Costantini) will line up on Saturday’s restart grid on the front row.
Crucially, the Lamborghini will resume the race on the same lap as Scuderia Praha, albeit by the narrowest of margins: the 24H DUBAI polesitters came within just five seconds of dropping one lap down in the closing stages.
Behind the top two, the Herberth Motorsport Porsche 991 GT3 R (#91, Daniel Allemann / Ralf Bohn / Robert Renauer / Alfred Renauer) lies 3rd overall having passed the Winward Racing / HTP Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 (#25, Russell Ward / Bryce Ward / Philip Ellis) with just 15 minutes left on the clock.
The pair are now 1st and 2nd respectively in the A6-Am class, ahead of the Car Collection Motorsport Audi R8 LMS (#34, Johannes Dr. Kirchhoff / Max Edelhoff / Gustav Edelhoff) in 5th place overall. The PHOENIX RACING Audi R8 LMS (#5, Frank Stippler / Vincent Kolb / Kim-Luis Schramm / Ivan Pareras), further back in 7th, completes the top three in A6-Pro so far.
The DUWO Racing Porsche 991-II Cup (#909, Andrey Mukovoz / Sergey Peregudov / Stanislav Sidoruk) currently leads in 991 ahead of Modena Motorsports (#916, John Shen / Francis Tjia / Philippe Descombes / Benny Simonsen).
Following issues for both MRS GT-Racing (#980, Pablo Otero / Wolfgang Triller / Peter Terting), which led early on before suffering a puncture, and Speed Lover (#978, Dominique Bastien / Sven Van Laere), which made heavy contact with the wall at pit exit, 3rd in-class now belongs to the first of two Porsche Lorient Racing Cup Porsche 991-II Cups (#912, Philippe Polette / Frederic Lelievre / Lionel Amrouche).
Having run comfortably in the top two of SPX throughout the opening four hours, the Vr Racing by Qvick Motors MARC II V8 (#709, Tom van Rompuy / Erik Qvick / John Rasse) how holds a comfortable advantage over fellow MARC II V8 runners, Cor Euser Racing (#717, Cor Euser / Einar Thorsen). The latter ended the first part of its race in the barriers at turn eight, thus opening the door for JR Motorsport BMW M3 F80 (#202, Ted van Vliet / Ward Sluys / Michael Verhagen) to move into 2nd place in-class.
Astonishing recovery drive for AC Motorsport at 12H SPA
The AC Motorsport Audi RS3 LMS (#188, Stephane Perrin / Vincent Radermecker / James Kaye) leads a superb battle for outright TCE honours at the 12H SPA, one that will see the top four runners start on the same lap after tonight’s overnight intervention.
Though the Audi completed 76 laps of the 7.004km Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, significant damage caused by an accident during Thursday’s private test session left significant doubt as to whether the team would be able to start the race at all.
“I was leaving my home yesterday and got a message from the team saying ‘maybe don’t come’ because the car was in such a state!” James Kaye explained to radiolemans.com’s Bruce Jones.
“But I got here this morning, they managed to roll the car out after working all night for the end of free practice, we qualified 2nd, and now we’ve finished the first part of the race in the lead. Incredible really!”
In an equally impressive fight back, the Autorama Motorsport by Wolf-Power Racing Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR (#112, Fabian Danz / Jan Sorensen / Kristian Jepsen) finished ‘part one’ of the 12H SPA in 2nd place in TCE, in spite of a late engine issue relegating the team to the very back of the grid.
Just behind the lead pair, the Holmgaard Motorsport Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR DSG (#102, Magnus Holmgaard / Jonas Holmgaard / Roy Edland / Martin Gøtsche) and the Red Camel-Jordans.nl CUPRA TCR (#101, Ivo Breukers / Rik Breukers / Francis Tjia) will line up on the second row for tomorrow’s restart.
The PROsport Performance Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 (#1, Rodrigue Gillion / Nico Verdonck / Akhil Rabindra / Michael Munemann) currently leads in SP3 after problems struck the reigning European Champion’s closest rivals.
A small fire cost the CWS Engineering Ginetta G55 (#378, Colin White / Ian Stinton / Jean-Francois Brunot) almost an hour on pit road, while the Intersport Racing BMW M3 (#614, Peter Hardman / Stuart Wright / Kevin Clarke) managed just 20 minutes at race pace before throttle problems ground the BMW to a halt.
Further back, the Winkler Tuning BMW E46 123D (#666, Michael Winkler / Markus Mair) has pulled a one-lap advantage over Dan Agro Racing Peugeot RCZ (#685, Nicolaj Kandborg / Lars Seistrup / Mikkel Gregersen / Steffan Jusjong) and Synchro Motorsport Honda FK8-Civic Type-R (#676, Alyn James / Daniel Wheeler / Matt Neal).
Following a brief overnight hiatus, the 2018 12H SPA will re-start on Saturday morning at 10.05 hrs local time, and will continue uninterrupted for up to eight more hours.
