Sainteloc Racing led the way on the opening day of the 24 Hours of Spa Prologue Test, topping both sessions with its Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo IIs.
Morning Session
The #25 Sainteloc Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II of Paul Evrard, Gilles Magnus and Benjamin Ricci was fastest in the opening three-hour session of the Prologue, with the Bronze Cup-entry setting a 2:16.223.
Its quickest time came shortly after the session resumed following a Red Flag to clean the circuit, just after the halfway mark.
Dean MacDonald was second fastest in the #58 Garage 59 McLaren GT3 Evo, only 0.006 seconds behind the Audi. It was a strong session for Garage 59, with the #188 third fastest in the hands of Thomas Fleming and the #59 Pro entry completing the most laps of anyone.
Harry King was fourth in the #33 Verstappen.Com Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 Evo, ahead of the Gold Cup-leading #57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Philip Ellis.
The fastest Pro entry, the #98 Rowe Racing BMW M4 GT3 Evo of Max Hesse, was sixth overall, ahead of Luca Stolz in the #17 Mercedes-AMG Team GetSpeed entry.
The #21 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin topped Silver, with the #4 Crowdstrike by SPS Mercedes-AMG leading Pro-Am.
The #911 Pure Rxcing Porsche 911 GT3.R (992) missed the majority of the session after stopping out on circuit early on, but rejoined in the closing minutes to have a shakedown ahead of the afternoon running.
Afternoon Session
Wyatt Brichachek was fastest in the Afternoon Session on Day 1 of the 24 Hours of Prologue, setting a 2:16.331 aboard the Silver Cup-entered #26 Sainteloc Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II.
Fabian Schiller was second fastest in the #17 Mercedes-AMG Team GetSpeed AMG GT3 Evo, following a 2:16.435 late in the session. A red flag at the start of the final hour set up a final 25-minute run, which featured a flurry of fast lap times before the Red Flags flew again to bring the day’s running to an early end.
Mikey Porter was third overall and fastest in the Gold Cup, in the #5 Optimum Motorsport McLaren GT3 Evo, ahead of the Bronze Cup-leading #27 QMMF by Sainteloc Racing Audi of Julian Hanses.
Fifth fastest was the #48 Mercedes-AMG Team MANN-FILTER entry of Lucas Auer, ahead of the #63 GRT – Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2 of Mirko Bortolotti.
Four more Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evos rounded out the Top 10: Lin Hodenius was seventh for GetSpeed, ahead of the #222 2 Seas Motorsport and #9 Boutsen VDS entries. The #4 CrowdStrike by SPS car of George Kurtz ended up 10th, and fastest in Pro-Am.
The #611 Nordique Racing AMG GT3 Evo completed the most laps, 73. This was three more than the next best car, the #81 Winward Racing AMG, managed.
Steller Motorsport ended the session sixth in the Bronze Cup, following a 2:17.119 from Matisse Lismont in the #424 Corvette Z06 GT3.R. Steller was joined on track by another Corvette for the first time, as the #2 Johor Motorsports JMR entry took to the circuit having missed the morning session.
In total, 70 of the 76 cars entered for the 24 Hours of Spa participated today, with every team present – the missing entries are all part of multi-car efforts.
It was difficult for teams to find a rhythm in the five-hour session, as multiple Red Flags punctuated proceedings.
Amongst the incidents, both the #8 Kessel Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 and the #19 GRT – Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini stopped out on track. The #00 Goodsmile Racing Mercedes-AMG and the #97 Rutronik Racing Porsche 911 GT3.R (992) also needed retrieving, whilst the #3 GetSpeed Mercedes-AMG and #15 BMW Italia Ceccato Racing M4 GT3 Evo ran into issues out on the circuit.
Running at the Prologue continues tomorrow, with a further eight hours of track time for the competitors ahead of the 24 Hours of Spa on 25-29 June.
Images courtesy of SRO/JEP
