Polesitter Marvin Kirchhofer in the #59 Garage 59 McLaren held the overall and Pro Cup lead before the first round of pitstops as the 2025 Spa 24H got underway in warm and sunny conditions on Saturday afternoon.
A clean and relatively calm opening lap went ahead without the Bronze Cup-entered #2 Johor JMR Corvette, which was brought to the pits off the grid with starting driver Jordan Love at the wheel after a brake issue was identified by the mechanics. It eventually joined 20 minutes into the race, now with Prince Jefri Ibrahim at the wheel.
In the Pro class, Vincent Abril in the #51 AF Corse Ferrari made up a place on Max Goetz in the #9 Boutsen VDS Mercedes on the first lap to run third, with Jules Gounon holding second in the #17 GetSpeed Mercedes behind Kirchhofer. Sandy Mitchell in the #163 VSR Lamborghini also slipped past Maro Engel’s #48 Mann-Filter Mercedes to move into fifth overall during the course of the hour.
At the front, Gounon started to close up on Kirchhofer with about 15 minutes of the opening hour to run and was looking close to passing the leader when both cars dived to the pits at the end of lap 24.
In the Gold Cup, Joel Sturm in the #92 Herberth Porsche held the lead from Thierry Vermeulen in the #33 Verstappen.com Aston Martin at the hour mark, while elsewhere in the class, Dean MacDonald (#58 Garage 59 McLaren) had an early spin at the Bus Stop, but managed to get going again unscathed.
Alex Aka in the #99 Tresor Attmepto Audi passed Mex Jansen in the #42 Century BMW for the lead of the Bronze Cup around the 45-minute mark, while the lead of the Pro-Am Cup also changed hands during the first hour, with Ross Gunn in the #100 Beechdean Aston Martin sitting at the head of the Spa 24-only category as the clock hit 60 minutes.
An early incident at the Bus Stop saw Silver Cup runner Michele Beretta in the #60 VSR Lamborghini turned around by Louis Machiels’ #52 AF Corse Ferrari, and then hit by Antares Au in the #97 Rutronik Porsche, the latter cars both in the Bronze Cup. Both Beretta and Au’s cars suffered heavy front corner damage and the clear-up from this necessitated a short Full Course Yellow after about 15 minutes of running. Machiels was later hit with a drive-through penalty for the fracas.
Images: SRO/JEP, Marcel Wulf and Frozenspeed
