In the 100th Spa 24 race, Aston Martin prevails thanks to late drama for Ferrari.
Aston Martin won the Spa 24 Hours in a thrilling last-ditch effort to win the Belgian enduro for the first time since 1948.
With less than 50 minutes remaining in a race marred by severe and lengthy rain as well as no less than 17 safety cars, the Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 driven by Nicki Thiim, Marco Sorensen, and Mattia Drudi stormed into the lead.
With Alessandro Pier Guidi driving the race-leading factory AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3, they surged to the head of the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup field as their access into the pits was blocked.
In the small pitlane between the Formula 1 pitboxes and the Bus Stop chicane, the lead AF entry, Pier Guidi, co-drove with Davide Rigon and Alessio Rovera, lost little more than 50 seconds while stopped behind the Silver Cup class entry, which was broken down by the Grasser Lamborghini team.
When Pier Guidi went into the pits for his final stop, he was leading the Aston by little over ten seconds; however, the delay before the Lambo was pulled away gave the Aston the advantage in a race that also counted toward the Intercontinental GT Challenge.
Drudi beat Pier Guidi to the finish in the finest of the newly evolved Vantages GT3s for 2024.
Aston Martin's lucky break enabled the British brand, which has been a mainstay of the GT circuit since 2005, to win the race twice in a row at Spa, 76 years after St John Horsfall and Leslie Johnson won the inaugural post-war race.
"What a crazy race with everything that happened all night long with the rain - and now this!" said Thiim.
"To be honest, I'm a little sorry for the Italians, but this is really important to me."
A driver who has won class honors at Le Mnas and the Nurburgring 24 Hours said, "This is the last one on my bucket list."
"It's fantastic."
After overtaking David Pittard in the #34 Walkenhorst Aston and Julien Andlauer's Rutronik Porsche 911 GT3-R, which still needed to make its last fuel stop, Pier Guidi battled back to finish second in the 100th edition of the Spa enduro.
Pier Guidi was now third behind the Rowe BMW M4 GT3 of Max Hesse, Dan Harper, and Augusto Farfus. The latter had to enter the pits with just two minutes remaining, having been forced to make an early pit stop due to a slow puncture.
Due to the WRT team, BMW was able to secure a podium in a race it had won the year before, despite the vehicle dropping to sixth in the final position.
In the M4 he shared with Sheldon van der Linde and Charles Weerts, Dries Vanthoor crossed the finish line in fourth place, but he was quickly passed by the Walkenhorst Aston driven by David Pittard, Henrique Chaves, and Ross Gunn.
When Pittard rushed back after his delay, he was fined 10s for making touch with Pier Guidi when the Italian passed at Les Combes.
In the lead Lamborghini Huracan GT EVO2 of the Grasser Racing Team, Franck Perera, Jordan Pepper, and Marco Mapelli finished sixth; the first-named having taken pole position.
With an AF-run 488 GT3 Evo entered under the Iron Lynx brand and piloted by Pier Guidi, Nicklas Nielsen, and Come Ledogar, Ferrari appeared poised to repeat its triumph at Spa in 2021.
When the Italian brand took the lead in the race, Pier Guidi was in the driver's seat.
When he pulled off one lap clear of the two cars ahead, the Comtoyou Aston and the Rowe BMW, he was running a tight third in the 20th hour.
Pier Guidi's acceleration on the outlap put the Ferari in front of the contending BMW and Aston, driven by Harper and Thiim, respectively. You may also read: GT3 Drivers We Want To See At Le Mans
Three circuits later, Thiim passed Harper in the Bruxelles hairpin, but the Ferrari was unstoppable, pulling away to a lead that remained at little over three seconds at the next round of stops.
With less than an hour remaining, there was just one more cautionary period—a fast-moving Full Course Yellow—before the lead proceeded to increase throughout the run to the flag.
With Mikael Grenier, Philip Ellis, Dominik Baumann, and Al Faisal Al Zubair driving the Getspeed team's #777 to Gold Cup class honors, Mercedes, a two-time winner of the Spa enduro in the GT3 era, could only manage a seventh place finish.
Due to accident damage, the #48 Winward Racing Merc, which had Lucas Auer starting in the lead and qualifying second, had to make another attempt in the thirteenth hour. Meanwhile, the #2 Getspeed entry, which was raced by Jules Gounon, Luca Stolz, and Fabian Schiller, had to retire during the night due to problems with its front left hub.
Porsche finished eighth and ninth, with Matt Campbell, Mathieu Jaminet, and Frederic Makowiecki's SSR Herberth 992-shape 911 GT3-R defeating Julien Andlauer, Sven Muller, and Patric Niederhauser's Rutronik entry.
The Bronze Cup-winning R8 LMS GT3 Evo II of Attempto drivers Max Hofer, Dylan Pereira, Aleksei Nesov, and Andrey Mukovoz from Audi completed the top 10.
