GT 24 Hours of SPA 2021 manufacturer’s results
WIth 58 cars on the grid, the 9 manufacturers had mixed results. Let us see in details the achievements per manufacturer.
Audi: 8 cars ending for 9 on the grid
3 teams, 9 Audi R8 LMS GT3, different success:
· Team WRT had 4 entries and managed to get the 4 running for the 24 hours with #32 and #37 in the top 10:
o P2 for #32 with Dries Vanthoor, Kelvin van der Linde, Charles Weerts despite the right strategy just before torrential rain, a safety car reduced the gap, and the grip of the car couldn’t resist to un unbelievable drive from Alessandro Pier Guidi with his Ferrari #51.
o P4 for #37 with Nico Müller, Robin Frijns, Dennis Lind
o P22 for #30 with James Pull, Franco Colapinto, Benjamin Goethe
o P24 for #31 with Ryuichiro Tomita, Frank Bird, Valdemar Eriksen
· Sainteloc Racing had 3 entries, 2 did run the 24 hours; 1 DNF:
o P6 for #25 with Markus Winkelhock, Patric Niederhauser, Christopher Haase
o P29 for #27 with Alexandre Cougnaud, Lucas Legeret, Louis Prette, Aurelien Panis
o #26 with Jamie Green, Finlay Hutchison, Adrien Tambay DNF
· Attempto Racing had 2 entries both at start and finish:
o P9 for #66 with Mattia Drudi, Dennis Marschall, Christopher Mies
o P15 for #99 with Fabien Lavergne, Max Hofer, Alex Aka
Note that the 4 entries for Audi Sport Team (#32, 37, 25 and 66) did finish in the top 10.
Aston Martin: 2 cars ending for 3 on the grid.
Garage 59 had 3 entries, one in each major class:
· Pro class #95 Vantage was a one-off entry supported by AMR with Prodrive/AMR staff members shared by reigning FIA World Endurance GT champions Nicki Thiim and Marco Sorensen alongside factory driver Ross Gun.
The trio earned Aston Martin’s first 24 Hours of Spa overall podium since 2008 when Darren Turner, Philipp Peter, Andrew Thompson and Allan Simonsen also finished third in a Gigawave Motorsport-run DBR9.
Nicki Thiim did set the fastest lap of the race after setting third-fastest lap in qualifications (but was handed a .25 second penalty for leaving his pit box too late).
· Silver Cup #159 Garage 59 Aston Martin Vantage driven by Alex MacDowall, Tuomas Tujula, Valentin Hasse-Clot and Nicolai Kjaergaard completed the class podium in third.
· Pro-AM #188 Vantage had a gearbox issue shortly before halfway thereby preventing Garage 59 to gain a podium in three different classes.
Bentley: 0 car ending for 1 on the grid
The 24 Hours of Spa have never been successful for Bentley. CMR bettted on one entry with the #107 Continental GT3. Despite being the fastest Silver Cup in qualification, the team was not able to achieve more than the manufacturer the years before; they had to throw away the glove a bit after midway.
BMW: 1 car classified for 3 on the grid
BMW was among the favorites starting in Row 3 after qualifying P5 and P6. The two Walkenhorst Motorsport BMW M6 GT3s retired almost at the same time after 9 hours 40’.
Sheldon van der Linde, David Pittard, Marco Wittmann driving the #34 were third overall when the BMW M6 GT3 suffered an engine failure.
The #35 BMW M6 GT3, with Martin Tomczyk, Time Glock and Thomas Neubauer at the wheel, also in third place was damaged in a collision. The #35 returned to the track after repair but had to retire.
Sad last round at the 24 hours of Spa for the BMW M6 but the replacing BMW M4 GT3 which completed laps after Friday’s Super Pole and in June look promising for 2022.
Pro-AM #10 Boutsen Ginion BMW M6 GT3 driven by Karim Ojjeh, Jens Liebhauser, Yann Zimmer et Jens Klingmann ended P11 in the class after suffering drive through, 2 punctures and 2 broken shock absorbers.
Ferrari: 6 car classified for 7 on the grid
Very emotional 24 Hours of Spa for Amato Ferrari, team principal and owner of AF Corse, as his team made P1 for #53 and P2 for #52 in Pro-Am Cup but also because AF Corse operates the #51 Iron Lynx Ferrari 488 GT3s winning the race after a dramatic final in the hands of Alessandro Pier Guidi, Nicklas Nielsen and Côme Ledogar.
Sadly, the second Iron Lynx car operated by AF Corse (#71 shared by Antonio Fuoco, Callum Illot and Davide Rigon) had to abandon as it was impossible for Rigon to avoid the heavy accident 20’ after the start.
One can’t dream of a better performance with the 3 cars running ending dominating their class.
The 3 other Ferrari 488 GT3 showed the reliability of the car doing the two clock towers, ending
- In P4 Pro-AM for #93 Sky Tempesta Racing with Jonathan Hui, Chris Froggatt, Matteo Cressoni, Edward Cheever
- In P9 Pro-AM for #11 Kessel Racing driven by Tim Kohmann, Francesco Zollo, Giorgio Roda, David Fumanelli
- In P10 Silver Cup for #33 Team Rinaldi Racing shared by Benja Hites, Fabrizio Crestani, David Perel
Lamborghini: 3 car classified for 8 on the grid
Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo were promising with 4 of them running for the super pole reserved to the top 20 combined qualifications. #63 Orange 1 FFF Racing Team Mirko Bortolotti, Marco Mapelli, Andrea Caldarelli had 2nd best time and started form row 1; Silver Cup #14 Emil Frey Racing led by Alex Fontana, Rolf Ineichen, Ricardo Feller was 4th starting from row 2.
The 2 other Pro Cup from Emil Frey Racing #114 and #163 in the top 20 super pole had to withdraw after 23:40 minutes following the heavy crash involving four cars at Raidillon.
The # 63 Orange 1 FFF Racing Team Lamborghini has always been a front runner, taking race lead in hour seven until hour ten. Andrea Caldarelli, Mirko Bortolotti and Marco Mapelli lost their lead to a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pit lane. Caldarelli was running 11th at the 12-hour milestone.
Sunday, the # 63 Orange1 FFF Racing Team Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo dropped out of contention after a second drive-through penalty for speeding in the pit lane, Mapelli being handed a drive-through for spinning the Sky-Tempesta Ferrari around at Bruxelles six hours from the end and a right-rear puncture to finish 8th overall.
18th overall and 3rd Pro-AM, #77 Barwell Motorsport run by Miguel Ramos, Leo Machitski, Henrique Chaves, Sandy Mitchell.
31st overall Silver Cup #14 Emil Frey Racing driven by Alex Fontana, Rolf Ineichen, Ricardo Feller
McLaren: 2 car classified for 2 on the grid
Two McLaren 720S GT3 on the entry list, two at the arrival of the 24 Hours of Spa.
The JOTA #38 driven by Rob Bell, Oliver Wilkinson and Ben Barnicoat finished seventh after a late overtake of the No. 63 Orange1 FFF Racing Team Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo.
JOTA started from sixth. Barnicoat and Bell ran as high as second during their early stints behind the wheel. The team remained at the sharp end of the field throughout the race and got third-fastest lap. Without a series of FCY-related setbacks (pitting when Full Course Yellow went just after they left the pits) they could have achieved a higher result.
Bell, Oliver Wilkinson and Ben Barnicoat filed McLaren’s best-ever result at the Belgian race and its first top-ten since 2012 when the Von Ryan Racing MP4-12C GT3 finished ninth.
The Inception Racing #70 ran by Oliver Millroy, Brendan Iribe, Kevin Madsen, Jordan Pepper operated by Optimum Motorsport ended 28th after losing 20 minutes to diagnosing an engine misfire that required to replace the No. 70 McLaren 720S GT3’s coil pack and associated spark plug.
Mercedes: 9 car classified for 13 on the grid
Mercedes was celebrating the 40th anniversary of its 1971 first success at the 24 Hours of Spa with great fanfare having the two official Mercedes-AMG GT3 starting from the front of the grid: #88 from AKKA ASP in Pole and #4 from HRT in row 2.
A total of 13 Mercedes-AMG GT3 were on the grid. 9 cars were classified, 4 not after the 24 hours
The #89 AKKA ASP driven by Lucas Auer, Timur Boguslavskiy, Felipe Fraga was the highest-placed Mercedes-AMG in tenth overall.
The #90 Madpanda Motorsport Mercedes of Ezequiel Perez Companc, Ricardo Sanchez, Patrick Kujala, Rik Breukers ended 11th and won the Silver Cup class in front of the No. 7 Toksport WRT Mercedes driven by Axcil Ramar Jefferies, Oscar Tunjo, Paul Petit, Marvin Dienst who end 13th overall.
SPS automotive performance had its #40 Silver Cup ending 21st while sister Pro-AM #20 had P25 overall and finished sixth in the Pro-Am class.
The third AKKA-ASP #87(running in Silver Cup class) ended 23rd.
Ram Racing #69 finished 34th and #50 Hub Auto 36th.
The #4 Team HRT Mercedes was one of a handful retirements later in the running after several incidents but was still classified as 36th.
The #88 AKKA-ASP Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo led the early stages from pole position and was running as high as third overall through the morning hours with a broken damper since four. They were waiting for a FCY to replace but it completely broke and the team had to retire with a bit more than 9 hours to go.
Porsche: 7 car classified for 12 on the grid
The two KCMG Porsche 911 GT3-R did perform the best out of ten Porsche customer teams that tackled the 24-hour race with a total of twelve 911 GT3 R.
- #47 driven by former 24 Hours winners Martin, Tandy and Vanthoor finished 5th
- #18 driven by Edoardo Liberati, Alexandre Imperatori, Joshua Burdon ended 12th overall.
#166 Haegeli by T2 Racing led the Am Cup class from its sole rival Huber Motorsport last overall classified.
In the Pro-Am class, EBM Giga Racing team founder Will Bamber and his teammates Reid Harker, Carlos Rivas, Wolfgang Triller finished in 20th place overall, 5th in their class with #61 on top against Herberth Motorsport’s #911 Porsche crewed by Antares Au, Daniel Allemann, Alfred and Robert Renauer.
In the Silver Cup, Team Allied Racing’s #222 achieved ninth with Julien Apotheloz, Bastian Buus, Lars Kern and Arno Santamato.
The #21 Rutronik Racing was stopped by the heavy accident on top of the Raidillon, while the #3 Schnabl Engineering Porsche 911 GT3 R retired just before halfway after being struck from behind on the approach to Eau Rouge.
The #22 GPX Racing Porsche dropped out with steering issues.
Both Dinamic Motorsport were Not Classified with #56 retiring a bit after 6 hours and #54 a bit less than 9 hours to go after spending the first few hours in the top ten, even reaching sixth overall by halfway.
Pieder Decurtins, Manuel Lauck, Marc Basseng and Dennis Busch claimed victory with the #166 Porsche Hägeli by T2 Racing in the Am Cup. It was a close battle with the #23 Huber Motorsport car, which suffered a heavy crash at Raidillon Sunday morning.
