Spa after 2 hours: Proton Porsche stars in early hours; Iron Dames lead LMGT3
Below are the main headlines following the first two hours of racing at TotalEnergies 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps.
Hypercar
No.99 Proton Competition Porsche started by Julien Andlauer made huge impression in opening two hours of the race as he surged to the front to lead in customer Porsche 963 Hypercar
Andlauer made decisive move on polesitter and early leader Frederic Makowiecki in No.5 Porsche Penske 963 Hypercar in to Bus Stop chicane after 38-minutes while lapping traffic
The French ace then pulled away and after first scheduled pit stop he led the No.51 Ferrari AF Corse driven by Antonio Giovinazzi.
But a stuck open door after Neel Jani took over the cockpit in second pit stop meant the Swiss driver struggled to close it for several laps under Safety Car. He eventually managed to shut it
Giovinazzi’s Ferrari 499P made excellent progress from 11th position on starting grid to sit behind Andlauer as the third hour arrived and race prepared to go green again.
No.5 Porsche Penske of Makowiecki placed third just ahead of the Laurens Vanthoor driven No.6 Porsche Penske. Vanthoor survived first hour incident in which Dutch driver took un-planned trip down the Bus Stop chicane escape road
No.83 Robert Kubica driven AF Corse Ferrari 499P placed fifth ahead of the No.50 Ferrari AF Corse 499P entry which came through, in hands of Nicklas Nielsen, from last in Hypercar field
No.2 Cadillac Racing dropped back in opening hour as team elected to save tyres for second phase of race. Alex Lynn struggled with grip issues and dropped back to edge of top 10 from second placed start
Safety Car was triggered after multi-car incident at Fagnes corner involving the No.38 Hertz Team Jota, No.20 BMW and No.46 WRT BMW M Hypercar. Barrier and fence repairs meant that when third hour arrived it was still under Safety Car
The rest of the top ten in Hypercar was made up of: No.35 BMW, No.12 Hertz Team JOTA Porsche; No.7 Toyota Gazoo Racing; No.93 Peugeot TotalEnergies.
LMGT3
No.85 Iron Dames Lamborghini Huracan driven in first hours by Sarah Bovy built healthy lead to head the LMGT3 field by an impressive 41-second lead
The pole achieving Lamborghini enjoyed consistently extending advantage over chasing LMGT3 field which was headed by the No.59 United Autosports McLaren challenger driven by James Cottingham
But Iron Dames see their hard-won advantage reduced to nothing after Safety Car was deployed
Cottingham overtook the No.46 WRT BMW of Ahmed Al Harthy in first hour and built useful gap to the Manthey EMA Porsche 911 R LMGT3 driven by Yasser Shahin settle in to third
Al Harthy retired from race after 90-minutes when he is in collision with the No.38 Hertz Team JOTA Porsche 963 Hypercar. It occurred after the No.20 BMW M Hypercar of Rene Rast pushed the Jota Porsche in to the No.46 BMW on the approach to the Fagnes corner
That incident brought out an initial Virtual Safety Car before a full Safety Car was actioned
Fourth in LMGT3 sat the No.78 Akkodis ASP Lexus driven by Arnold Robin
Completing the top six are the No.54 VISTA AF Corse Ferrari 296 LMGT3 started by Thomas Flohr and then Francesco Castellacci in fifth, and then the No.27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin of Ian James in sixth
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