Aston Martin stole a dramatic last-gasp victory at the Spa 24 Hours to claim a first win at the Belgian enduro since 1948. 

The Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 shared by Nicki Thiim, Marco Sorensen and Mattia Drudi jumped into the lead of a race affected by heavy and prolonged rain and no fewer than 17 safety cars with less than 50 minutes left on the clock. 

They moved to the front of the field in the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup blue riband when the race-leading factory AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 with Alessandro Pier Guidi at the wheel found its path into the pits blocked. 

The lead AF entry Pier Guidi co-drove with Davide Rigon and Alessio Rovera lost just over 50s stationary behind the broken down Silver Cup class entry from the Grasser Lamborghini team in the narrow section of the pitlane between the Bus Stop chicane and the Formula 1 pitboxes . 

Pier Guidi led by just over 10s from the Aston when he ducked into the pits for his final stop, the delay before the Lambo was towed away handing Aston the victory in a race that also counted towards the Intercontinental GT Challenge. 

Drudi crossed the line in the best of the new-for-2024 evolution Vantages GT3s ahead of Pier Guidi. 

The stroke of luck on the part of Aston Martin allowed the British marque, a stalwart of the GT scene since 2005, to claim its second outright victory at Spa, 76 years after St John Horsfall and Leslie Johnson triumphed in the first post-war edition. 

Thiim, said: “What a crazy race with what happened all the way through the night with the rain — and now this! 

“Actually I feel a bit sorry for the Italians, but this means a lot to me. 

“This is the last one on my bucket list,” added a driver who has taken victory at the Nurburgring 24 Hours and class honours at Le Mnas. 

“It’s awesome.”

#51 AF Corse — Francorchamps Ferrari 296 GT3: Alessandro Pier Guidi, Davide Rigon, Alessio Rovera

Photo by: Emanuele Clivati | AG Photo

Pier Guidi recovered to second in the centenary running of the Spa enduro, moving past David Pittard in the #34 Walkenhorst Aston and then the Rutronik Porsche 911 GT3-R with Julien Andlauer at the wheel, which still needed to make its final stop for fuel. 

That put Pier Guidi third behind the Rowe BMW M4 GT3 of Max Hesse, Dan Harper and Augusto Farfus, which had to come into the pits with two minutes to go after what should have been its final pitstop was brought forward by a slow puncture. 

That dropped the car to sixth in the final order, but BMW still claimed a podium in a race it won last year courtesy of the WRT team.

Dries Vanthoor crossed the line in fourth place in the M4 he shared with Sheldon van der Linde and Charles Weerts but immediately moved up a place ahead of the Walkenhorst Aston of David Pittard, Henrique Chaves and Ross Gunn. 

Pittard was docked 10s for contact with Pier Guidi when the Italian came past at Les Combes as he charged back after his delay. 

Franck Perera, Jordan Pepper and Marco Mapelli took fifth in the Grasser Racing Team’s lead Lamborghini Huracan GT EVO2 the first-named had put on pole position. 

Ferrari looked set to reprise its 2021 victory at Spa with an AF-run 488 GT3 Evo entered under Iron Lynx banner and driven by Pier Guidi, Nicklas Nielsen and Come Ledogar. 

Pier Guidi was aboard the car when the race turned in the favour of the Italian marque. 

He was running a close third in the 20th hour when he stopped one lap before the two cars ahead, the Rowe BMW and the Comtoyou Aston. 

Pier Guidi’s pace on the outlap gave the Ferari the lead ahead of the battling BMW and Aston in the respective hands of Harper and Thiim. 

Thiim then made it past Harper at the Bruxelles hairpin three laps later but was unable to do anything about the Ferrari, which edged away into a lead that stood at a little more than 3s at the next round of stops. 

The lead continued to go up over a run to the flag interrupted only by one further caution period, a quick-fire Full Course Yellow with just under an hour to go. 

Mercedes, a two-time winner of the Spa enduro in the GT3 era, could finish no better than seventh with the Getspeed team’s #777 that took Gold Cup class honours with Mikael Grenier, Philip Ellis, Dominik Baumann and Al Faisal Al Zubair. 

The #48 Winward Racing Merc in which Lucas Auer qualified second and led early on retried in the 13th hour as a result of accident damage, while the #2 Getspeed entry driven by Jules Gounon, Luca Stolz and Fabian Schiller was withdrawn with front left hub issues during the night. 

Porsche took eighth and ninth positions, the SSR Herberth 992-shape 911 GT3-R of Matt Campbell, Mathieu Jaminet and Frederic Makowiecki beating the Rutronik entry of Julien Andlauer, Sven Muller and Patric Niederhauser. 

Audi rounded out the top 10 with the Bronze Cup-winning R8 LMS GT3 Evo II of Attempto drivers Max Hofer, Dylan Pereira, Aleksei Nesov and Andrey Mukovoz.

 

The Spa 24 Hours celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2024, with a whopping 67 cars set to tackle the world-famous event renowned as one of the toughest in motorsport.

BMW squad Rowe Racing arrive as the defending event winner, after its M4 GT3 of Philipp Eng, Marco Wittmann and Nick Yelloly claimed victory by 11.1 seconds in 2023 ahead of the ASP team’s Mercedes-AMG GT3.

Rowe also took victory in the first GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup event of the year at Paul Ricard courtesy of Augusto Farfus, Dan Harper and Max Hesse in April.

But given the size of the grid and how long the race is, a back-to-back win at the event which forms part of both the Intercontinental GT Challenge and GTWCE Endurance is especially rare. The last time it occurred was in 2006, five years before the current GT3 era began.

It really is too close to call and the scene is set to be another thriller at Spa-Francorchamps. Here is how and when to watch the action.

Can Eng, Wittmann and Yelloly repeat their 2023 success for ROWE?

Photo by: BMW AG

When is the 2024 Spa 24 Hours?

• Date: Saturday 29 June — Sunday 30 June
• Start time: 2:30pm GMT / 3:30pm BST / 4:30pm local time / 10:30am ET / 12:30am AEST (Sunday) / 11:30pm JST

The 2024 Spa 24 Hours starts on Saturday 29 June at 3:30pm in the United Kingdom and 4:30pm local time. It is then scheduled to finish at 3:30pm BST and 4:30pm local on Sunday 30 June to cap off four consecutive days of track action in Belgium.

It begins with free practice on Thursday 27 June, where drivers will start a 90-minute session at 10:20am BST (11:20am local time) before pre-qualifying that afternoon. Pre-qualifying is effectively another free practice, this time lasting for 60 minutes, however the results from this session will determine Saturday’s grid if qualifying for any reason cannot happen.

Thursday is set to be very busy, as pre-qualifying is just the second of four sessions happening that day. What follows is qualifying, due to start at 7:35pm BST (8:35pm local time) which will consist of four 15-minute sessions where one driver from each car will contest a different part. Three-driver crews skip Q1.

The average lap time across the sessions establishes the order, with qualifying determining who starts from 21st downwards as the top 20 fastest cars progress to Friday’s Super Pole Shootout.

Before then, however, is a 90-minute practice session at 9:25pm BST (10:25pm local) on Thursday which gives teams the chance to test their cars at night, often the most challenging part of the race given the reduced visibility and drop in temperature.

Friday is all about Super Pole. A 30-minute session beginning at 2:45pm BST (3:45pm) entails each team nominating a driver to set two flying laps, with the best time being recorded. This will determine the top 20 grid spots, while there is also a 30-minute warm-up session at 7:10pm BST (8:10pm local) on Friday evening before the race starts the following day.

#51 AF Corse — Francorchamps Motors Ferrari 296 GT3: Alessio Rovera, Robert Shwartzman, Nicklas Nielsen

Photo by: Eric Le Galliot

What are the timings for the 2024 Spa 24 Hours?

Here are the full timings for this week’s Spa 24 Hours:

How can I watch the 2024 Spa 24 Hours?

The Spa 24 Hours is available to watch via Motorsport.tv, which will live stream qualifying, Super Pole, the race warm-up and the main event which means the practice sessions are not being broadcast. On Saturday, there will also be a one-hour build-up to the race while shortly after the 24-hour contest has finished, Motorsport.tv will upload highlights of the action.

Motorsport.tv‘s coverage is available worldwide — except for in Japan — and this year’s Spa 24 Hours can be watched via the platform for free.

Race action

Photo by: AG Photo

Live stream links for the 2024 Spa 24 Hours

Here are the different links for each session that is available via Motorsport.tv:

Qualifying: https://motorsport.tv/gt-world/video/round-4-24-hours-of-spa-qualifying/192376 

Super Pole Shootout: https://motorsport.tv/gt-world/video/round-4-24-hours-of-spa-super-pole-shootout/192377 

Warm-up: https://motorsport.tv/gt-world/video/round-4-24-hours-of-spa-warmup/192375 

Spa 24 Hours: https://motorsport.tv/gt-world/video/round-4-24-hours-of-spa-race/192378 

Entry list for the 2024 Spa 24 Hours

The Spa 24 Hours is split across five categories: Pro, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Pro-Am. Eligibility is determined by the FIA grading system.

The Pro category, the highest-ranked class, has no restrictions on driver grading. But in the Gold class, a maximum of three gold-rated drivers must pair up with one silver; while the Silver class may comprise entirely of drivers with that grading. 

A maximum line-up of platinum-silver-silver-bronze is permitted in the Bronze Cup, while in the Pro-Am category, teams must field a driver line-up that consists of no more than two platinum and two bronze drivers.

#17 Scherer Sport PHX Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II: Luca Engstler, Kelvin Van Der Linde, Nicki Thiim

Photo by: SRO

For this year’s Spa 24 Hours, nine manufacturers will be represented. Mercedes has the most cars entered with 14, ahead of Porsche on 12, Audi with eight and seven for Ferrari. Aston Martin, BMW, Lamborghini and McLaren all have six cars competing, while there is just one Ford Mustang GT3.