8 Hours in and the race has fallen firmly into the grasp of the pair of WRT-run Audis which took control at around the four-hour mark, the two Audis have only ceded the lead since then for 11 laps to another form car in this period of the race, the #77 Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini which Mirko Bortolotti hauled back into contention.
The British-based team though saw no luck with the timing of a flurry of Code 60 periods, never falling their way in a fuel window and dropped back as a result of having to fuel under green flag running. The pair of Audis were running closely together with the #7 MS7 car holding a slim advantage, Dries Vanthoor and Christopher Mies trying to push on and break the will of the chasing #31 WRT Audi with Frederic Vervisch and young Benjamin Goethe providing stiff resistance.
The #4 Abu Dhabi Racing by HRT Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo was still pushing hard, looking to grab back the lap lost to an early penalty with the #92 Herberth Porsche tussling with the #77 Barwell Lamborghini behind.
There was trouble for four significant GT3 runners with the #54 Dinamic Porsche, having led the race twice, its competitive run was ended by significant contact with the wall in the fifth hour for Murad Sultanov.
The sister #67 car, another early race leader was eliminated after a significant accident between the Porsche and the #714 GTX class KTM close to the end of the eights hour, both Matteo Cairoli and Robert Schiftner checked out and were released from the medical centre, the Porsche suffering major front right damage. The incident brought out the race’s 14th Code 60 period.
There was trouble too, in rapid succession, for two of the three debuting BMW M4 GT3s, the #28 ST Racing car struggling back to the pits apparently trailing fluids – that turned out to have been an overheating issue caused by an impact with one of the polystyrene course markers, portions of which were scooped up by the not insignificantly large apertures on the front of the car and blocking cooling surfaces. The ST racing team got the car back out on track dropping the car out of the top 20.
In more serious trouble just minutes later was the #30 Schubert Motorsport M4 GT3 Marcel Lenerz suffering significant front left suspension damage that took well over an hour to fix – the car is back out and running but 30+ laps down on the overall leaders.
In the classes the #85 CP Racing AMG is continuing its strong run that saw the car lead the race at the two-hour mark, Charles Espenlaub is back at the wheel and the car runs 5th and with a 3 lap gap to their closes GT3 Am class rival.
GT3 Pro-Am is led by the #85 MP Motorsport AMG, involved in a close battle with class rivals ST Racing and their #1 BMW M4 GT3 the pair contesting 10th overall. That car however is set to lose two laps post-race after Harry Gottsacker blew the red light at the pit exit at the start of the race.
992-Pro is led by the #933 Team GP-Elite Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (992) car running 16th overall, with 992-Am led by the #929 HRT Performance car – 21st overall.
GTX sees the #704 PK Carsport Audi R8 LMS GT2 with a comfortable 4 lap lead over the Liepert Motorsport Lamborghini Super Trofeo.
The #408 Dragon Racing Mercedes AMG GT4 has a comfortable margin in GT4, 34th overall and a lap clear of the Korean crewed #430 AMG and with the Heart of Racing Aston Martin next up in class.
The #188 AC Motorsport Audi leads TCR – 35th overall with the #202 Les Deux Arbres Ligier JS2 R topping TCX, 47th overall.
