Ferrari AF Corse looking strong after hectic first two hours of Spa 24 ends under FCY

The leading No.51 Ferrari before the start alongside the second placed No.58 McLaren I Credit: SRO/JEP

The No.51 Ferrari leads the 24 Hours of Spa in the hands of Tommaso Mosca after a hectic first couple of hours filled with incidents, that fittingly ends under a FCY. Benjamin Goethe leads Gold from second overall in the No.58 Garage 59 Mclaren, closing followed by Frederick Schandorff in the No.71 Selected Car Racing Ferrari (also in contention for Gold).

Jarrod Waberski leads Bronze from fourth overall in the No.12 GetSpeed Mercedes, with Dylan Medler leading Silver from 13th overall in the No.45 Rinaldi Ferrari. Bo Yuan leads Pro-Am from 32nd overall in the No.86 High Class Racing Porsche.

As it happened

Nicklas Nielsen pulled the pole sitting No.51 AF Corse Ferrari away from the grid to start the first of what was to be two formation laps, with the second one counting as the first racing lap. The clock had started running, so by the time we got going properly, almost five minutes had elapsed.

The leaders got away well, with Nielsen holding the lead ahead of Thomas Fleming in the No.58 Gold leading McLaren. Frederick Schandorff in the No.71 Selected Car Racing Ferrari jumped into second ahead of Daniel Juncadella in the No.3 Verstappen Racing Mercedes, who had a slightly slow getaway towards Eau Rouge.

Further back, all was clean too, until we got to the middle sector. Exiting Pouhon, there was a multi-car collision started by the No.66 Attempto Audi which spun off and came back on and into the No.34 Walkenhorst Aston Martin, which got a bit of air time.

With the pack so close together on the first lap of racing, cars spead across the track, darting and diving between bits of debris and stricken cars. Once the dust had settled, many cars had to pit at the end of the lap with damage, including the Walkenhorst car which managed to drive away from the incident.

However, the Audi, the sister No.35 Walkenhorst and the No.992 Paradine BMW all couldn't get away, and were taken out of the race on the first lap. The Safety Car was brought out to cover the incident.

The No.35 Walkenhorst Aston Martin I Credit: SRO/JEP

With 23 hours and 35 minutes on the clock we went green again, but the leaders barely made it onto the Kemmel Straight before the races first Full-Course Yellow (FCY) came out. The No.42 Oman Racing by Century Motorsport BMW was coming out of the pits after repairing damage from the initial incident, but the bonnet they had replaced came loose at the top of the Kemmel Straight and put debris on the track.

It was a short yellow though, and we went racing very soon after. The top five went away in formation, but Ben Tuck in the No.74 Kessel Ferrari made a move into sixth ahead of Alex Aka in the No.99 Attempto Audi.

Aka was struggling for pace, and eventually halfway around the next lap his rear left tyre gave way and he had to limp back with a puncture.

We barely got one full racing lap in before the FCY returned for the second time. The No.28 was turned around by the No.0 Corvette, leaving debris on the exit of La Source that had to be removed again. Again, it was short yellow, so we got going again afterwards.

From there the drivers settled into the race, with Nielsen opening up a small gap out front, but Fleming wasn't loosing touch. Schandorff was somewhat on his own in third, as the No.3 and No.48 Mercedes' both battled.

Juncadella in the fourth placed Verstappen Racing machine had a small gap over Maro Engel behind, but he had a brief trip through the gravel on the exit of Campus, allowing the German behind to close the gap.

At the end of lap 22 the leaders began their pit stops. Nielsen, Schandorff and the two Mercs pit, leaving Fleming out on his own to lead the race. The vast majority of the rest of the field also came in on this lap, with the maximum stint length approaching.

During a normal stint the max time would be 60 minutes, but during any stint that included a SC or FCY could be extended to 65 minutes.

Once Fleming did bring the car in the net order began to take shape again. Nielsen handed over to Tommaso Mosca, with Benjamin Goethe bringing the No.58 back out. Schandorff was the only one in the initial top five to opt for a double stint while Chris Lulham and Luca Stolz took over the No.3 and No.48 Mercedes'.

The No.71 Selected Car Racing Ferrari I Credit: SRO/JEP

Meanwhile, Aka in the No.99 Audi had more issues, with the rear left wheel coming loose and flying off the car. The wheel went straight into the path of Gabriele Piana in the No.87 Winward Mercedes, who picked up some damage from the stray wheel.

The ensuing FCY allowed a few cars who had pit very early on to get a cheap pit stop and get back into contention. So Mosca led from Goethe and Schandorff. Fourth was the No.12 GetSpeed Team Dubai Mercedes, which had jumped from the very rear of the field in the hands of Jarrod Waberski. They also took the lead of the Bronze class.

Fifth was Dean MacDonald in the No.59 Pro class Garage 59, with Lulham sixth, Dustin Blattner in the No.74 Ferrari seventh with the No.34 Walkenhorst Aston that was involved in the first lap incident jumping to eighth with a cheap stop. Stolz had dropped to ninth.

That group began to battle as soon as we went green though, with Christian Krognes in the recovering Aston coming out seventh, and Stolz eighth, both ahead of Blattner.

Meanwhile out front, Goethe and Schandorff began to battle for second overall and the lead in Gold. The duo made small contact at Les Combes, but kept battling on.

The No.4 Optimum Motorsport McLaren of Harry George had to limp home with a puncture after contact with the No.24 Corvette of Dennis Lind. He managed to get it back though, with no need for intervention from race control.

Meanwhile MacDonald and Lulham were battling for fifth. The McLaren got held up by traffic coming out of Eau Rouge, giving the Briton the run and the position into Les Combes.

With just over 22 hours remaining, Blattner in the No.74 Ferrari got into contact with the No.11 ComToYou Aston Martin of Marcelo Tomasoni, with the Aston spinning off into the gravel but getting going again. Blattner went down the inside trying to put a lap on the Brazilian, but misjudged and made contact.

A lap later, the No.79 Porsche went off at the exit of Fagnes, into the gravel. This brought out the FCY once again.

Two hours elapsed just before the FCY and Mosca led the way by 13 seconds from Goethe, who was still running with Schandorff very close behind.