As the fifth hour of the 2016 Spa 24 Hours unfolded, there was a third, albeit brief, full-course yellow when Derek Pierce found the tyre barriers at Les Combes in the #30 Team Parker Bentley (below), which had been leading the Am Cup class.
The other Parker car (the #24 Pro-Am Continental, with Tom Onslow-Cole at the wheel) came to a halt on track briefly due to being stuck in gear, but both he and Pierce got going again, the latter recovering his damaged car to the pits. Another car to hit trouble was the #12 Boutsen Ginion BMW not long afterwards, suffering a rear puncture that required an unscheduled stop.
At the front of the field, Nico Muller in the #28 WRT Audi (above) held a roughly 20-second lead over Maxime Martin in the #99 ROWE BMW until he came into the pits, but Martin’s times while behind Muller were good enough to ensure that he would now hold the lead he’d inherited for a considerable time before having to make his stop.
Elsewhere, the challenges of both works Bentleys were blunted by drive-through penalties: for a driver stint time violation (eight seconds over) in the case of the #8 and track limits in the case of the #7.
With those penalties having been served, another full-course yellow was called just before 9:45pm local time (just over five hours into the race) when the #15 ROAL BMW (above), already well out of contention after being delayed by an electrical fault, hit the barriers at the top of Eau Rouge, spreading fluid on track. As was the case with the earlier Porsche/Ferrari incident, the FCY became a safety car, neutralising what were fairly modest gaps separating the top 10 or so cars.
This caution period came at the right time for the majority of those cars, which had been due to stop soon anyway, however it somewhat compromised the advantage of the #28 Audi, which was forced to pit sooner than would have been ideal.
Sims in the #99 led for ROWE BMW behind the safety car, ahead of Mies in the #6 Audi, Stevens in the #1 Audi, Piccini in the #19 Lamborghini, Kaffer in the #4 Audi, Rast in the #28, Hirschi in the #114 Jaguar, Reip in the #8 Bentley and Smith in the #7 Bentley, the latter having just taken over from Kane, and van Gisbergen in the #58 McLaren, just off the lead lap.
The situation didn’t stay that way for long, however, as the #28 and #114 (above) had a coming-together in the braking zone for Fagnes that left the Jaguar temporarily stopped off track. The Audi emerged with a rear puncture that resulted in bodywork damage, however it appeared this may have already happened before the contact.
The car was pushed back into the garage once Rast got it back to the pits for what would turn out to be a seven-and-half-minute stop. The #40 Easy Race Ferrari was also involved in the incident, but managed to rejoin and keep going.
