The Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo (#77, Adrian Amstutz / Leonid Machitski / Patrick Kujala / Dennis Lind) currently leads the 2019 24H BARCELONA, albeit by just 9.2 seconds over the Herberth Motorsport Porsche 991 GT3 R (#91, Daniel Allemann / Ralf Bohn / Robert Renauer / Sven Müller)
So far, 124 laps of the 4.655km Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya have been completed during the opening four hours, 86 of which were led by the British-based Lamborghini, which yesterday qualified on pole position.
Behind the top two, the Bohemia Energy racing with Scuderia Praha Ferrari 488 GT3 (#11, Jiří Písařík / Josef Kral / Matteo Malucelli) holds the final overall spot and an, at present, all-A6-Pro podium. The Czech-based team has won all four rounds of this year’s 24H SERIES Europe, and is looking to secure the overall championship this weekend.
An early contender for outright victory, the Herberth Motorsport Porsche 991 GT3 R (#93, Edward Lewis Brauner / Stefan Aust / Klaus Bachler / Vincent Kolb / Zeljko Drmic) now leads the A6-Am category, and runs 6th on the road behind the GPX Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R (#24, Jean-Pierre Valentini / Benjamin Goethe / Stuart Hall / Nicky Pastorelli / Jordan Grogor / Jean-Pierre Valentini) and the Wochenspiegel Team Monschau Ferrari 488 GT3 (#22, Georg Weiss / Leonard Weiss / Jochen Krumbach / Hendrik Still).
Currently running 7th and 8th overall respectively, the Car Collection Motorsport Audi R8 LMS (#34, Johannes Dr. Kirchhoff / Max Edelhoff / Gustav Edelhoff / Elmar Grimm / Ingo Vogler) and the Hofor-Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 (#10, Michael Kroll / Alexander Prinz / Kenneth Heyer / Christiaan Frankenhout / Wim Spinoy) thus far round out the A6-Am top three.
In SPX, the True Racing KTM GTX (#216, Johannes Stuck / Ferdinand Stuck / Laura Kraihamer / Sehdi Sarmini) continues to lead after a bold overtaking manoeuvre in the opening stages of the race. With problems befalling the pole sitting Vortex V8 Vortex 1.0 (#701, Stephane Cottrell / Philippe Gruau / Nicolas Nobs / Francesc Gutierrez Agüi), the second True Racing KTM (#217, Hubert Trunkenpolz / Klaus Angerhofer / Gerald Kiska / Sehdi Sarmini / Artur Chwist) now lies 2nd, while the early leading Team Clickvers.de Porsche 991 Cup MR (#769, Robin Chrzanowski / Kersten Jodexnis / Stefan Berger / Maximilian Koch) has slipped back to 3rd.
The Raceunion by MRS GT-Racing Porsche 991-II Cup (#980, Alex Autumn / Andreas Gülden / Raulino Kreis Jr. / Hendrik Von Dannwitz / Jukka Honkavuori) currently leads a very tight battle for 991-class honours, the German team lapping less than five second ahead of the Team Webheads Porsche 991-I Cup (#902, Andreas Riedl / Joachim Bölting / JM Littman / Tom Dillmann).
A clutch problem meanwhile meant 991-class 24H SERIES Europe championship leader Porsche Lorient Racing (#911, Jean-François Demorge / Mathieu Pontais / Pascal Gibon / Frédéric Ancel) had to be pushed off the grid before the first formation lap had even been completed. The sister Porsche 991-II Cup (#912, Ludovic Loeul / Antoine Ettienne / Hervé Tremblaye / Lionel Amrouche) now lies 3rd in-class.
In contrast to its sister entry in the 991 class that suffered a collision on the opening lap, the Orchid Racing Team Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 CS MR (#415, Alexandre Mottet / Laurent Misbach / Emmanuel Bello / Massimo Salamanca) leads the GT4 category, just ahead of the Sorg Rennsport BMW M4 GT4 (#451, Olaf Meyer / Björn Simon / Simon Tibbett / Stephan Epp / Torsten Kratz).
Bizarrely, both contenders for the GT4-class 24H SERIES Europe championship contenders – the Hofor Racing by Bonk Motorsport BMW M4 GT4 (#50, Martin Kroll / Michael Fischer / Michael Schrey / Thomas Jäger / Michael Bonk) and the PROsport Performance Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 (#1, Rodrigue Gillion / Nico Verdonck / Jon Aizpurua / Nicholas Silva) – have each lost more than 1.5hrs in the garage with suspension damage and overheating issues respectively. The latter still holds 3rd in-class.
Ironically, despite the opening stages of the race being characterised by glorious sunshine, rain is now expected to interrupt the 2019 24H BARCELONA within the next hour.