After three hours in the 69th edition of the Total 24 Hours of Spa, the #6 Audi Sport Team Phoenix was on top of the leaderboard. The race was run under safety car for over 70 minutes, after a Porsche and Ferrari collided at the beginning of the Kemmel Straight.
After the first series of pitstops Mirko Bortolotti was still leading the race in the #63 Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini, but the Italian was under serious pressure of the Audis of Robin Frijns and Laurens Vanthoor. The reigning Blancpain GT Series champion almost got his #2 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT R8 in front, but the Dutchman preferred not to take any risks in the heavy traffic.
That entertaining three-way fight was interrupted by the second Full Course Yellow-period of the race, caused by a heavy crash of the #77 Attempto Racing Porsche and the #53 AF Corse Ferrari. Kevin Estre - coming out of pitlane - hit the side of the Motoaki Ishikawa's car and both spun into the guardrails. That caused quite a bit of damage, and the necessary repairs caused the first Safety Car-intervention, which would last some seventy minutes.
A good opportunity to take a pit stop - or even two - which meant that the leaderboard changed quite frequently. At the three-hour mark it was the #6 Audi Sport Team Phoenix that was leading, with Markus Winkelhock at the wheel. Eleven seconds down the road was the #26 Saintéloc Racing Audi, followed closely by the #19 Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini. Leader in the Pro-Am Cup (and 10th overall) was the #11 Kessel Racing Ferrari , while the Am Cup was led by the #30 Team Parker Racing Bentley.
The #6 Audi Sport Team Phoenix was obviously also leading the fight for the Intercontinental GT Challenge points, with the #7 Bentley Team M-Sport Continental in second and the #28 Audi Sport Team WRT R8 in third.