ART’s pitstop was quicker than M-Sport Bentley’s, so Lapierre rejoined and found himself only 1.5 seconds behind the leader Kane.
Catsburg led from Ortelli, Gai and Mies, but they all owed their final scheduled stops. The BMW ran the longest middle stint it could, coming in with 50 minutes to go and allowing Hassid to climb back into the car and a very healthy 40-second Pro-Am Cup lead. Second in class was Castellaci in the #90 Villorba Corse Ferrari.
With 45 minutes to go, it was certainly night time, headlights and camera flashes were lighting up the barriers and the Mistral was a shimmering stream of bobbing and weaving bulbs. The sole surviving Bentley was pulling away in front of a major corporate presence – or major corporate hospitality presence at the very least. Five seconds was Kane’s lead over Lapierre’s #98 McLaren.
Verdonck was out of the victory hunt but holding down third place in the #84 HTP Mercedes, but only just. His sister car, now with presumably Afanasiev at the wheel, though the timing screen suggested it was still Wolff, was only two-tenths back and Gregory Guilvert was only four-tenths further back in the #26 Audi.
Hassid was sixth overall, but his Pro-Am lead was being chipped away by Castellaci, who was only 18 seconds down with 40 minutes to go and losing a second or so a lap.
With 35 minutes the gap between the first two cars was waxing and waning with traffic, whereas the #84, #85 and #26 battle was still a nose-to-tail train.
With 30 minutes to go, Castellaci was within 13 seconds of the Pro-Am lead and sixth place overall. Hassid seemed to have got the message and was lapping quicker than before, cutting his losses marginally.
Kane seemed to be having the worst of the traffic and was baulked badly on a number of laps, leading to times in the 2:02s and even 2:03s and meaning that with 25 minutes to go it was very much race on, with Lapierre only two seconds behind.
Mies caught Castellaci with 20 minutes to go, potentially upsetting the #90s chase of #12, which was only 10 seconds up the road.
The last 15 minutes of the race was conducted in total darkness. The #11 Kessel car wouldn’t see the race out, however, retiring at turn five from fourth in class.
Meanwhile, the #80 Nissan was up to 17th place overall and 10th in class, but contact was reported between this car and the #333 in the hands of Vadim Kogay at turn three.
Kane’s lead was less than a second for the first time, making for a real battle royal, because the winner of this race would be the championship leader going into the next round at Spa – the 24 hours.
With 10 minutes to go, the lead was moving between one to two seconds. Castellaci was four seconds behind Hassid but then presumably a mistake saw him lose four seconds and Mies went through to seventh overall. Could this be a possibly overdue Pro-Am win for TDS on their weakest circuit after all?
The #84-#85-#26 train ran right to the end. #85 and #84 were losing time, and their swapping places on the penultimate lap and that meant Guilvert was right with them again. These drivers had ran rarely more than a second apart, and often much less, through their entire stints.
Hassid held out to secure a fine Pro-Am win and sixth overall, second in class was #90 and third was #35.
The win went to the #7 Bentley. It went down to the wire but Lapierre never quite got close enough to mount a challenge for the lead. But coming home only 1.1 seconds behind was still an excellent result for his first race in a McLaren.
Top ten: #7, #98, #85, #84, #26, #12 (1st Pro-Am), #3, #90 (2nd Pro-Am), #19, #35 (3rd Pro-Am).
An excellent mainly clean race with suspense to the end and a fascinating prequel to the Spa 24. Roll on July.
PS
