Lionspeed Porsche lead the 24 Hours of Spa with 8 hours to go

Credit: SRO

The No.80 Lionspeed Porsche that started from the pitlane currently lead the 24 Hours of Spa after making steady progress through the past 16 hours. The pole sitting No.51 AF Corse Ferrari is currently in second with the No.48 Mann Filter Mercedes quite a ways behind in third.

Leading Gold is the No.998 BMW, leading Silver and sixth overall is the No.65 Ford Mustang and the No.991 lead in Bronze.

As it happened

The No.51 Ferrari shuffled back up to first in the first sequence of pitstops following the 14 hour mark. The leader before the pitstop cycle was the No.46 BMW, who ultimately fell down to third when a two lap overcut from the No.48 Mercedes proved to be effective, just enough to sneak past the BMW.

The top three are offset by two laps to each other, with the No.51 being the earliest and the No.48 being the latest. Another car that keeps cycling back into the lead, although temporarily due to a pitstop offset, is the No.991 BMW, who are currently leading Bronze.

While the No.51 continued pulling away from the battle for second, the No.80 Lionspeed Porsche was steadily closing the gap to the No.46 in third. Eventually they No.80 made its way to third, and for the first time this race, the No.48 Mercedes suddenly had a Porsche knocking on its door.

The No.007 ComToYou Aston Martin, fighting for fifth overall, spun exiting Radillon and hit the barriers, breaking its suspension, effectively ending any chance the No.007 crew had at winning the race.

Just past the 15 hour mark, the No.46 got a radio message claiming the car had some major issues. Despite this, they kept lapping steadily, albeit not as quickly as their fellow front runners. The issue was quickly resolved and Valentino Rossi got in the car at their next pit stop.

In the next cycle of pitstops, the No.51 Ferrari continue leading, but the overcut did not go the way of the No.48 Mercedes the way it did in the previous cycle, the bright yellow car dropping to third with the No.80 Lionspeed Porsche jumping up to second.

The No.80 left the No.48 behind and started chasing down the leading No.51 Ferrari. It didn't take too long for the Porsche to close the gap to the Ferrari and took advantage of traffic at the Bus Stop chicane to grab the lead.

Soon after, No.555 McLaren had a front left issue and started going slowly. At the same time, at the other end of the track, near the Bus Stop, the No.64 Mustang came to a stop, bringing out a short Full Course Yellow.