24H Spa: Brilliant performance by Niederhauser
ONLY A PORSCHE WAS FASTER In the expectedly difficult 24-hour race at Spa, the Audi driven by Patric Niederhauser was always in the leading group. In the end, it was not enough for victory by five seconds. An open race until the end, the balanced fight of several brands for victory, treacherous changing weather and many retirements: The 71st edition of the [...]
An open race right to the end, the balanced battle of several brands for victory, treacherous changing weather and many retirements: The 71st edition of the 24 Hours of Spa, postponed from summer to fall, was hard to beat for excitement and drama.
Open fight
In the close competition between the 56 GT3 sports cars from eleven manufacturers, the lead changed virtually every hour. With Audi, Porsche, Lamborghini, Ferrari and Mercedes-AMG, five brands still had real chances of winning in the Ardennes on Sunday morning.
Depending on the pit stop sequence and overtaking maneuvers, one or the other team was in the lead. For a long time, this included the Audi R8 LMS of the factory-supported team Attempto Racing with Mattia Drudi, Patric Niederhauser and Frédéric Vervisch.
Two wins in four weeks with two brands
As the rain became heavier in the final 90 minutes, Rowe Racing's Porsche 911 GT3 R with works drivers Nick Tandy (GB), Earl Bamber (NZ) and Laurens Vanthoor (B) caught the Attempto Audi, which had been moving flawlessly at the front for the last two and a half hours by the Bernese. He had no chance against the rear-engined sports car, which was better in terms of traction in the wet.
The Saarland-based team had already won the Belgian classic in 2016 with a BMW M6 and only four weeks ago also triumphed with it at the Nürburgring.
Only 4.6 seconds separated the two top teams after 527 laps of the 7.004-kilometer GP circuit. The winning Porsche, which was already developing alarming noises, would hardly have managed another lap for lack of transmission oil.
"Nidi" as good as Nico Müller
Patric Niederhauser climbed the podium in the same way as Nico Müller - who decided not to race in 2020 in order to concentrate on the DTM finale - did five years ago when he finished second overall.
The last Swiss winners at the Spa 24 Hours were Marcel Fässler and Jean-Denis Delétraz in the 2007 race, which was also affected by mixed weather, then on Corvette.
In addition to winning the 2019 ADAC GT Masters championship title, which he again leads with South African Kelvin van der Linde, this is the Bernese driver's greatest racing success to date. And confirmation that he was rightly elevated to the Audi GT factory squad this year.
Despite the great success, he had mixed feelings at the end.
Patric Niederhauser: "Before the race I would have signed for this result. It really was very difficult for 24 hours. Now I don't know whether I should cry more because of the victory I missed so narrowly or be more happy about second place. But I think in the end we can all be proud of it."
Many failures
The second-best Swiss was Louis Delétraz in the GPX Racing Porsche, who finished eleventh. Pole setter Raffaele Marciello led a Mercedes-AMG for a long time in the opening phase and retired during the night with an exploded brake disc.
Emil Frey Racing brought only one of the two Lamborghinis - the car with Ricardo Feller in 16th place - over the laps. Daniel Allemann retired with his Porsche due to a severe accident on Sunday morning.
The numerous incidents resulted in no fewer than 18 yellow phases and 14 safety car deployments. Only 38 teams, not all of whom saw the chequered flag, were classified.
Off. Classification 24H Spa 2020
