Lionspeed GP defies odds for 24H of Spa win

It is usual to say that 24 hour races tend to choose their winners, and if so, the 24 Hours of Spa goes for the most unusual ones as the No. 80 Lionspeed GP Porsche 911 GT3R os Bastian Buus, Ricardo Feller and Thomas Preining departed from the pitlane to score the first win of the team as a Pro Cup entry in both GT World Challenge Europe and Intercontinental GT Challenge, with only two endurance races in the top class after two seasons in the Bronze Cup.
 
Despite the number of cars crossing Eau Rouge and Radillion, things were safe at the start, but it didn’t take long to have a multi-car incident, as various cars were sideways at the exit at Pouhon, with most of them having some sort of damage, neutralizing the field led by the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari.
 
After this Safety Car period and two debris yellow periods, the race resumed to have some green flag run in the final 30 minutes of the first hour. The No. 51 pulled the No. 58 Garage 59 McLaren and the No. 71 SCR Ferrari, and the No. 3 Verstappen Mercedes and the No. 48 Winward Mercedes following them and detaching from the biggest pack.
 
Once the first four hour were gone, the No. 51 was still in the lead but the No. 71 SCR Ferrari fell down the order due to a mix of routine stop and more full course yellows. The No. 48 advanced to second with a series of bold moves and the Garage 59 McLarens became prey for the No. 3 and the emerging No. 98 ROWE BMW, while the No. 64 HRT Ford was trying to reach the leading pack amid the traffic in front. The No. 51 was holding well the No. 48, but after four hours and a half, the right rear tire got a puncture, bringing a major lead change in favor of the No. 48.
 
With pit cycles starting to differ and more caution periods, the No. 64 HRT Ford took the lead during the night. After some time making strategic use of full course yellows, the battles on track were resumed with nine hours of racing, as the No. 48 started chasing the No. 64 while the No. 2 was chasing both of them until their stop, leaving the No. 46 WRT BMW in third place while the No. 3 was still on the chase.
 
With some lenghty neutralization periods and heavy rain coming during the night, the order was changed quite significantly at the front, with the No. 46 WRT BMW leading the No. 48 Winward Mercedes, and the pair of AF Corse Ferraris being back to contention in third and fourth, followed by the No. 80 Lionspeed GP Porsche, the No. 7 Comtoyou Aston Martin, the Gold Cup leading No. 111 CSA McLaren and the Silver Cup leading No. 65 HRT Ford.
 
Further in the morning, the No. 65 HRT Ford had issues and lost a lot of time and the No. 111 CSA McLaren fell down the order. The No. 22 CLRT Porsche became a contender mid morning, benefited by the fact that Tommaso Mosca tried a lunge at Luca Stolz, with the No. 48 blocking it and the No. 51 getting a puncture. Since Ayhançan Güven already passed Bastian Buus, it was two positions at once for the No. 22, emerging to second place.
 
After the next pit cycle, the No. 80 made the most of the traffic and the stops of the nearby contenders and took the lead right before the No. 48’s pit exit.While the No. 80 went away with the lead and the No. 48 was barely holding the second position from the No. 51, a Porsche melee for fourth ended with Güven losing patience and barging so hard that it almost ripped off one of the No. 2’s fenders, which of course was penalized.
 
In the final hours, the No. 48 had some gains but eventually couldn’t catch the No. 80, and with Alessio Rovera bringing the No. 51 to the fight, Luca Stolz focused more on defending than pushing hard. The last pit cycle started with the final hour and went until nearly the final 30 minutes, with the No. 80 Lionspeed GP Porsche keeping the lead de facto by a considerable margin, and since Lucas Auer was busy defending from Alessio Rovera, Thomas Preining just had to bring it home for the win.
 
GTWC Europe - 24 Hours of Spa results
 

The No. 74 Kessel Ferrari was the winner and dominant force of the Bronze Cup, sometimes mixed with the top Pro Cup entries because of the efforts of Dennis Marschall and Mathis Jaubert. The Gold Cup initially appeared to be going to the No. 111 CSA McLaren, but with it falling off during the night, the No. 998 ROWE BMW got the class win. The Silver Cup had the No. 30 WRT BMW in front, but eventually the No. 45 Rinaldi Ferrari outpaced it, and in the Pro-Am Cup, keeping the panels clean was more than enough for the No. 0 JMR Corvette to conquer the class, as the immediate opposition lost a lot of time dealing with minor damage.
 
The trio Auer/Engel/Stolz (No. 48) leads the Endurance Cup standings with 74 points, with the disastrous race at Spa being a heavy blow for Sorensen/Thiim/Drudi (No. 7) as they sit in second but with only 33 points. Prette/Fleming/Goethe (No. 58) appear as the oddball from the Gold Cup in third with 32 points while Spa winners Buus/Preining/Feller (No. 80) sitting in fourth with 30 points. Farfus/Marciello/Dennis (No. 98) have 26 points in fifth, and the trio Mazzola/Levi/Øgaard tumbled down to sixth with the same 25 points they got with their Monza win.
 
GT World Challenge Europe now moves to the next Sprint Cup round at Misano on 18 and 19 July, with the next Endurance Cup round set for Nürburgring’s GP-Strecke on 30 August. The Intercontinental GT Challenge resumes activities in Asia, with the Suzuka 1000km set for 13 September.
 
PHOTOS: SRO/JEP