24H Spa: Lottery with many losers 🎥
WEATHER CAPRIOLS The Spa 24 Hours were less a battle against the clock than against the capricious weather. Nico Müller was the strongest Swiss for a long time with Audi. Instead of victory or a podium, there was the late retirement. The 11-minute summary of the 2019 Spa 24 Hours, held for the 71st time, gives the degree of difficulty and [...]
This 11-minute summary of the 2019 Spa 24 Hours, held for the 71st time, reflects the level of difficulty and the turbulent course of the race. Time and again, heavy rain during the endurance classic presented the competitors with the challenge of choosing the right type of tire at the right moment.
Lots of rain, little rain, no rain - and that in constant change. It was always necessary to react quickly to adjust to the new track conditions. Because of the heavy precipitation at dawn on Sunday morning, the race organizers even interrupted the marathon for six hours before the re-start took place shortly before noon for the remaining five hours.
Nico Müller's late retirement no longer played a role
Before and after that, the Audi of Nico Müller, Robin Frijns and René Rast were among the front runners. In the fourth and fifth hours of the race, the three Audi factory drivers from the DTM led the field of 72 GT3 sports cars. After the forced break, the trio again fought for the lead and was in front for laps.
Under pressure from the Porsche of Kevin Estre (F), Richard Lietz (A) and Michael Christensen (DK), who later won the race, Müller once spun tail-first into the tire stacks without causing any major damage to the R8 LMS fielded by Audi Team WRT from Belgium (see highlights from 7:49). Several positions were lost in the process.
Even if he didn't necessarily win, there was still a chance of a podium. Eight minutes before the end of the race, Rast was rammed by a group of cars and then crashed into the side of the guard rails (highlights from 9:16). Instead of 4th place, the retirement left him in 23rd place.
Nico Müller: "Our expectations were higher. In the final hours, the pace of the Porsches was better. We led for a long time and in the end it didn't pay off. The fact that we didn't see the checkered flag no longer matters in terms of the result. We wanted the win."
Top teams beaten below value
Last year, Montaplast by Land-Motorsport was the best-ranked Audi team in third place. This time, the team with Ricardo Feller from Aargau, the Briton Jamie Green and the German Christopher Mies had to settle for 14th place. Three drive-through penalties and further setbacks repeatedly threw the trio, which is fast in itself, back in the standings.
Rolf Ineichen and his Austrian team had a similar fate with the top Lamborghini Huracán. The professionals Mirko Bortolotti and Christian Engelhart had brought the Lambo to the top in the difficult conditions without much help from the Lucerne driver, which the German maintained before and after the race interruption. By the finish, the trio had lost two laps to the Porsche one-two and had to settle for 16th place.
With the second Grasser Lamborghini, Lucas Mauron finished 33rd and P5 in the Silver Cup for drivers with FIA Silver classification. Fourth place in the Silver Cup went to the British Honda team with Philipp Frommenwiler.
The Nissan GT-R Nismo with Alexandre Imperatori finished the race in 18th place. Only one of three Aston Martin Vantage cars from R-Motorsport in St. Gallen managed this in 19th place. The other two cars retired early due to accidents. The Porsche entered in the Pro-Am category with Daniel Allemann from Solothurn also fell victim to an accident during the night.
Two Swiss on the Am podium
Actually, only two Swiss Gentleman Drivers from the category Am for Bronze Drivers (plus at most one Silver Driver for support) had reason to cheer. In the previous year still winner and afterwards champion, there was for Adrian Amstutz this year with the same team (Barwell Motorsport from England) and car (Lamborghini Huracán) the second place. As third in another Lambo team, Christoph Lenz was able to place himself on the podium for the first time in the world's biggest GT3 race.
