Lionspeed GP claimed victory on the 79th operating of the Spa 24 Hours after ranging from pit lane, beating the #48 Winward Mercedes and the #51 AF Corse Ferrari to the highest step of the rostrum in entrance of a document crowd of 132,000 spectators.
The triumph marked the most important achievement in workforce historical past for Lionspeed GP. Drivers Ricardo Feller, Thomas Preining, and Bastian Buus took the chequered flag after an unbelievable comeback race during which that they had initially began from the pit lane.
The end result marks the primary general victory for the 992-generation Porsche 911 GT3 R at Spa, and the German producer’s first win on the occasion since 2020.
With all three drivers celebrating their maiden victories on the world’s greatest GT3 race, it was the second general Professional-class win for Lionspeed in GT World Problem Europe, following its Dash Cup success in race two at Manufacturers Hatch.
Ranging from the pit lane, the Porsche steadily sliced by the sphere throughout the opening levels. The workforce then capitalised on a flurry of night-time full-course yellows and security vehicles to place itself on the entrance of the sphere, because the 911 GT3 R (992) grew more and more aggressive with each passing hour.
The race finally got here right down to a ultimate three-and-a-half-hour dash. The Lionspeed entry had already established the lead an hour prior throughout a cycle of pit stops.
When the race restarted for the eleventh time, Preining instantly pulled clear whereas his pursuers fought onerous over P2, permitting the previous DTM champion to construct a snug hole, which solely needed to be managed by the ultimate three hours.
The battle for second place was fierce, that includes an exciting three-way scrap between the #48 Winward Mercedes of Lucas Auer, Maro Engel and Luca Stolz, the #51 AF Corse Ferrari of Alessio Rovera, Tommaso Mosca and Nicklas Nielsen, and the #22 Schumacher CLRT Porsche of Ayhancan Guven, Matt Campbell and Frederic Makowiecki.
Double puncture for Ferrari
The #51 endured a rollercoaster of a race. Within the scorching warmth in the beginning of the race, the Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo was the undisputed pacesetter. Nevertheless, a puncture simply 4 and a half hours in dealt the workforce a giant blow, costing it one and a half laps.
The Italian squad managed to climb its method again onto the lead lap throughout the night time with intelligent ways. In the course of the transition from FCY to security automobile, the #51 automobile bypassed a pit cease below FCY to overhaul the chief on monitor. By ready till the sphere had bunched up behind the security automobile to make its cease, it efficiently remained on the lead lap.
Photograph by: SRO/JEP
Simply because it rejoined the struggle for the lead, Mosca suffered one other puncture in a duel with Luca Stolz. Though this second setback saved the automobile on the lead lap—and the ultimate security automobile introduced it proper again into competition — the dominant tempo of the opening hours had vanished as ambient temperatures dropped under 30 levels Celsius within the closing levels.
With one hour remaining, Rovera pressured his well beyond Guven at Les Combes with a sturdy elbows-out transfer. AF Corse then tried to undercut the ‘”Mamba” with an early ultimate pit cease, however Rovera emerged simply behind the #87 Winward Mercedes. Unsurprisingly, Gabriele Piana proved removed from cooperative, making the Ferrari work onerous to get previous and permitting the #48 to remain forward.
Intra-Model Drama for Porsche
Previous to this, Guven had discovered himself on the centre of controversy following a fierce, stint-long intra-brand battle with Morris Schuring within the #2 Boutsen VDS Porsche.
On the ultimate lap earlier than their scheduled pit stops, Guven launched a late divebomb into La Supply. The transfer resulted involved that broken the entrance bumper of Schuring’s automobile, successfully knocking the #2 entry out of podium competition.
In the meantime, the “Mamba” confirmed aggressive tempo throughout all monitor circumstances. Nevertheless, Maro Engel obtained caught behind the lapped #30 WRT BMW of Amaury Cordeel on the ultimate restart, immediately shedding three seconds to Preining.
The next in-fighting with the Ferrari and the Schumacher CLRT Porsche price an excessive amount of time, permitting the Lionspeed Porsche to flee up the street.
Not one of the vehicles ending from fifth place downward had the tempo to problem for the victory. The #50 AF Corse Ferrari of Arthur Leclerc, Lilou Wadoux and Sean Gelael recovered from a minor scare and light-weight contact with the boundaries on Saturday night to complete fifth, however lacked the last word firepower of its sister automobile.
Behind them, the #46 WRT BMW of Dan Harper, Max Hesse and Valentino Rossi crossed the road in sixth. Your entire fleet of BMW M4 GT3 Evos lacked that ultimate fraction of pace this weekend.
After the #46 hit the entrance on Sunday morning throughout the necessary technical pit stops, it was unable to defend the place. The #98 Rowe BMW of Augusto Farfus, Jake Dennis and Raffaele Marciello completed ninth, whereas the #32 automobile of Kelvin van der Linde, Jordan Pepper and Charles Weerts finally ended up twelfth after struggling a difficulty with oil and energy steering pump on the ultimate lap.
Between the BMWs, the #34 Walkenhorst Aston Martin of Jamie Day, Christian Krognes and Henrique Chaves got here in seventh place. The Aston’s race nearly led to a main first-lap pileup, however Day managed to limp again to the pit lane.
Photograph by: SRO/JEP
The workforce repaired the Vantage with none lingering efficiency deficits, permitting the automobile to run nearly constantly within the prime ten, even when its final tempo was not sufficient to problem the leaders.
Excessive attrition within the Professional Class
The “Mamba” ended up because the lone flag-bearer for Mercedes-AMG, because the model’s different two Professional entries did not go the space. The #17 GetSpeed Mercedes of Maxime Martin, Maximilian Gotz and Fabian Schiller endured a nightmare weekend that concluded after simply three and a half hours.
The #17’s troubles started in qualifying when all of its lap instances had been deleted. Compelled to begin from the again, the AMG obtained tousled in midfield site visitors and made contact with the #177 Mercedes, forcing each vehicles into retirement with terminal harm.
Previous to the crash, the #17 had already been hit with penalties and a compulsory pit cease resulting from a malfunctioning transponder.
The #3 Verstappen Racing Mercedes of Dani Juncadella, Chris Lulham and Jules Gounon ran solidly within the main group till mid-race, when a bottleneck on the pit lane entrance triggered the start of the top.
A stranded automobile blocked the pit entry, inflicting a site visitors jam that noticed the #3 AMG rear-end the #51 Ferrari. The workforce retired the automobile 4 hours later resulting from secondary harm.
The #34 Walkenhorst machine additionally ended up as the only British Professional automobile left standing. The #7 Comtoyou Aston Martin of Mattia Drudi, Marco Sorensen and Nicki Thiim seemed barely stronger till Thiim spun out at Raidillon on Sunday morning.
The Dane famously pulled off a spectacular 360-degree spin at the very same spot in 2022 after making contact with Jules Gounon, however this time luck was not on his aspect: a heavy impression introduced a right away finish to his race.
The #64 HRT Ford Mustang of Arjun Maini, Fabio Scherer and Thomas Drouet seemed spectacular throughout the night time, main the race on another technique and sustaining a strong top-five presence.
The Mustang’s cost was derailed by two consecutive setbacks: first, a 60-second stop-and-go penalty for dashing below FCY, adopted three hours later by a terminal mechanical failure.
Photograph by: SRO/JEP
It was additionally a weekend to neglect for McLaren, with Storage 59 coming into two potential front-runners. The #59 of Joseph Loake, Dean MacDonald and Marvin Kirchhofer retired within the seventh hour with suspension failure.
The sister #58 automobile of Thomas Fleming, Louis Prette and Oliver Goethe was main the Gold Cup and harbouring general podium ambitions till shortly after the midway mark, when Goethe introduced the 720S GT3 Evo to the pits with extreme front-end harm after colliding with a Porsche. The ensuing radiator leak price the workforce 27 laps in repairs.
Lamborghini endured a totally disappointing weekend, as the brand new Temerario GT3 by no means discovered its candy spot. The #96 Rutronik Lamborghini of Luca Engstler, Marco Mapelli and Patric Niederhauser crossed the road three laps down in nineteenth.
The #63 Grasser Lamborghini of Franck Perera, Maximilian Paul and Mirko Bortolotti noticed its hopes evaporate within the sixth hour when the automobile suffered engine bother. Following hours of intensive repairs, the workforce accomplished a quick set up lap earlier than formally retiring the automobile.
The lone Professional-Cup Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II additionally didn’t attain the end line. The #84 Eastalent Audi of Simon Reicher, Markus Winkelhock and Christopher Haase executed an excellent technique to maximise championship factors on the six-hour mark, however subsequently fell a number of laps down earlier than Markus Winkelhock suffered a heavy crash on the exit of Blanchimont throughout the night time.
Class winners on the 2026 Spa 24 Hours
Professional-Cup: Lionspeed-Porsche #80 (Feller/Preining/Buus) – P1
Gold-Cup: Rowe-BMW #998 (de Wilde/Tramnitz/Klingmann) – P11
Silver-Cup: Rinaldi-Ferrari #45 (Duran/Medler/Balzan/Perel) – P14
Bronze-Cup: Kessel-Ferrari #74 (Blattner/Tuck/Jaubert/Marschall) – P10
Professional-Am-Cup: JMR-Corvette #0 (J. Ibrahim/A.B. Ibrahim/Love/Inexperienced) – P29
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