A second set of Blancpain GT and Endurance Cup points was awarded at the 12-hour mark of the Spa 24 hours. With a long pit stop dropping the #58 McLaren well out of a points position, Rob Bell maintains the lead of the overall Blancpain GT standings, but doesn’t add to his total of 124 points.
Second-place Buhk and Baumann scooped three points to take their total to 81 (staying second), but there’s a change below that as Audi’s Mies and Bentley’s Soucek and Soulet draw level on 71 points apiece in third and leapfrog Bell’s co-drivers Ledogar and van Gisbergen.
In the Blancpain Endurance Cup standings, the #58 McLaren crew stay where they are on 68 points, but second is now a dead heat between the #84 HTP Mercedes trio and #8 Bentley crew, both on 47 points. The latter are currently poised for the stronger result of the two and on course to take the championship lead if they go on to win the race.
The #99 BMW’s running near the front meanwhile sees Sims, Eng and Martin rise to fourth in the Endurance Cup standings on 30 points.
Choices, choices… strategy update at 12 hours with Paul Truswell
“The fact that there are more points available to Blancpain GT competitors at the 12-hour mark means that some teams/drivers may have different agendas as they approach the 24 hours of Spa-Francorchamps. Having said that, top priority for most teams is getting the car as far as possible in the 24 hours, and any extra points scored at half-distance are merely a fortunate bonus.
The second six hours of the race has provided long periods both of green flag running, but also a period of more than an hour of Full Course Yellow and Safety Cars. In some ways, the strategy under green is simpler, the regulations demand a stint length of no longer than 1h 05m, so you really want to stay out for as close as you can to that limit: the fuel and tyres should last that long, so it is not really a problem and the strategy works itself out.
Caution periods provide opportunities for teams to make decisions though, and we saw just before the six-hour mark a case where the no. 7 Bentley came out of the pits just on the lead lap, just at the end of a Safety Car Period, allowing it back into the chase, even though a drive through penalty seemed to have spoiled its chances.
At the beginning of the second quarter of the race, as the pit stop cycle unfolded, lo and behold: Guy Smith was in the lead of the race. So when the screens flashed yellow twenty minutes after midnight, following a hefty meeting between the Parker Bentley no. 24 and the barriers at Fagnes, team managers started calculating. This is where the judgement call had to be made: what would be the nature of the caution? Would the Safety Car be called?
The no. 8 Bentley made the call to the pit straight away, so did Frank Stippler in the WRT Audi; but Maxime Martin stayed out in the leading Rowe BMW. It soon became clear that a Safety Car would be needed. This had two effects: first, to elongate the caution period, second, to bunch the field (only one Safety Car in this race).
The next problem for the teams is to judge how long the Safety Car will stay out. For Rowe Racing, the decision made itself, as Martin ran out of stint driving time, it extends to 70 minutes under Safety Car conditions. But for Bentley and Audi, they both tried to bring their drivers in before the full 70 minutes, but close enough to the end of the Safety Car period to benefit from a pit stop while everyone else was going slowly, but getting a fast exit from the pit lane, avoiding being caught behind the queue.
The green flag eventually waved after 1h 06m, and Martin, in the BMW made good his escape. But of course what he had gained on the track during the caution he lost again because he had to pit first.
More swinging of the pendulum between Bentley, Audi and BMW…
The next time we saw yellow, it was a Full Course Yellow (no Safety Car) for just 4m 30s, and Rowe Racing rolled the dice. Philip Eng came in for the no 99 BMW’s “Technical Pit Stop” the mandatory stop of at least five minutes, to change the brake discs and pads. Oman Racing had already done theirs with the no. 44 Aston Martin, but most of the leading runners have not yet done theirs.
With poor weather forecast for the morning (rain from 10am?) brake wear should be less and the BMW should be able to get to the end of the race without further work, at least that is the theory!
Unfortunately for Rowe, the track went green with more than two minutes of the five mandatory minutes remaining. Now you can look at this in two ways, on the bright side, nearly three minutes were spent in the pits with a FCY, and remember that a FCY lap is at least 1m 45s longer than a SC lap. On the other hand, if Bentley or Audi (or Mercedes) can make their Technical Pit Stop under fully FCY conditions, then there is two minutes of time to be made up.
Never mind about points at half-distance, decisions with far-reaching consequences are being made all the time up and down the pit lane.
As this is being written, the seventh FCY of the race is in progress, caused by the requirement to sweep up oil from the no. 41 Ferrari, both Bentleys stayed out for one extra lap as the no. 6 Audi and no. 16 Lamborghini made stops.”
