With just over 14 hours to go in the 2019 edition of the Total 24 Hours of Spa, the outcome of the world's biggest GT3 race remains undecided. It was the #4 Mercedes-AMG Team Black Falcon car that led the pack at 2 am, but the first six cars were separated by under 45 seconds.
Although the Black Falcon machine seems to edge away from the competition, the battle behind the leader was hotting up fiercely. At around 1 am, there were no fewer than eight different manufacturers represented in the top-11.
The #1 Audi Sport Team WRT R8, that car that had taken the lead of the race just after the six-hour mark, was not among those, for the Rast-Frijns-Müller car had taken its mandatory technical pitstop just after the seven-hour mark. The Audi was not the only car inside the top-10 to do so, for the #76 R-Motorsport Aston Martin did the same two hours later.
At 2 pm the #4 Black Falcon machine held a 36 second lead over the #998 Rowe Racing Porsche, which was being chased by the #63 Grasser Racing Lamborghini and the #2 Audi Sport Team WRT. Not far behind were the #999 Mercedes-AMG Team GruppeM Racing car and the #25 Audi Sport Team Saintéloc R8, which had been given a drive-through penalty for a pitstop infringement.
Drama in Silver Cup meanwhile, when the race-long leader #55 Attempto Racing Audi came to a halt at Blanchimont just before midnight. It was the end of the race for the Schothorst brothers and Mattia Drudi. The lead in Silver Cup is now in the hands of another Audi squad, the #5 Phoenix Racing car of Pareiras, Schramm and Hutchison.
The Pro-Am battle developed into a two-way fight between the #97 Oman Racing with TF Sport Aston Martin and the #74 RAM Racing Mercedes-AMG, with the former holding on to a slender lead. In Am Cup, last year's winners of the #77 Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini were still leading, from the #188 Garage 59 Aston Martin.
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Next report at 5.00 CEST