The final track session of the two-day TotalEnergies 24 Hours of Spa test days ahead of the race proper (29 July/1 August).
A total of 61 cars saw track featuring nine GT3 brands.
Spa’s notorious weather made its presence felt on Tuesday when heavy rain greeted competitors at the track ahead of the first green flag. There was an upside to the challenging conditions, as teams were able to log extensive mileage using the latest evolution of Pirelli’s wet compound tyre, conducting work that could prove crucial during next month’s race.
The rain had cleared by Wednesday morning and it was during the final afternoon session that the best laps of the test were set.
The BMW M4 GT3, guesting as part of its pre-homologation programme, topped the times with the only sub 2:18 time of the test, a 2:17.968 from Nick Yelloly topping three other times from homologated GT3s that would prove to be quicker than those posted in the earlier track sessions.
Timo Glock posted a 2m18.621s lap at the wheel of the #35 Walkenhorst Motorsport BMW ahead of KCMGs #18 Porsche and Winward Racing’s #57 Mercedes-AMG.
BMW was one of three different brands to top a session during the two days of running.
Iron Lynx led Tuesday morning with its #51 Ferrari. KCMG can also be considered a serious challenger and its #18 Porsche emerged quickest on Tuesday afternoon. 2018 winner Walkenhorst Motorsport led the way on Wednesday morning with its #34 BMW before Glock topped the final session in the sister car.
Winward Racing was the top Silver Cup performer at the test, while Boutsen Ginion Racing (#10 BMW) and Hägeli by T2 Racing (#166 Porsche) led the Pro-Am and Am Cup classifications respectively. A number of red flags interrupted running across the two days. These included separate incidents for the #2 GetSpeed Mercedes-AMG and #163 Emil Frey Racing Lamborghini, which both suffered heavy impacts at Raidillion on Wednesday afternoon.
There was also a red flag in the final session called by Race Control after multiple warnings covering the majority of cars in the test over repeated track limits violations, further messages were relayed to the teams before green flag running recommenced.
Walkenhorst BMW Tops Morning Session On Day 2
Walkenhorst Motorsport topped Wednesday morning’s test session at Spa-Francorchamps with its #34 BMW M6 GT3.
The German squad, who spent much of day one preparing their car, making the required changes from the specifications it carried in the DTM season opener at Spa last weekend led the way with a lap of 2:18.798s, shading the #25 Saintéloc Racing Audi by 0.066s around the 7km circuit. AKKA ASP made it three brands in the top-three with its #88 Mercedes-AMG, which was 0.117s shy of the leading BMW.
But the morning ended in frustration for AKKA ASP when the sister #87 car crashed during the closing minutes of the session, bringing out the third red flag of the day. The first was caused by the #23 Huber Motorsport Porsche, while the second came after the #107 CMR Bentley suffered a left-rear puncture and became stranded at Bruxelles. There were also several yellow and full-course yellow periods as drivers found the limit at the challenging Ardennes track.
Following heavy rainfall on Tuesday conditions had cleared significantly overnight, allowing teams the opportunity to fit slick Pirellis on Wednesday morning. This brought plenty of cars onto the circuit, making for a busy morning of activity.
