#2 Audi leads Spa 24 Hours after 16 hours

The WRT Audi squad led the Spa 24 Hours round of the Blancpain Endurance Series with the R8 LMS shared by Frank Stippler, Stephane Ortelli and Nico Muller. The leading second-generation R8 held a 42-second lead over the chasing Marc VDS BMW Z4 GT3 driven by Maxime Martin, Augusto Farfus Jr and Dirk Werner, although the Audi was due a pit stop. The Audi moved ahead of the BMW and the Rowe Racing Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG of Daniel Juncadella, Stef Dusseldorp and Nico Bastian, which had battled it out at the front through the small hours, when the leaders had to stop for scheduled changes of brake discs and pads. Fourth place was held by the second Marc VDS entry in which team regulars Nicky Catsburg and Markus Palttala were joined by BMW factory driver Lucas Luhr. Top Pro-Am entry was the AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia shared by Gianmaria Bruni, Alessandro Pier Guidi, Stephane Lemert and Pasin Lathouras. The delayed #1 WRT Audi had made it back to 11th position after the loss of six laps to repair after Laurens Vanthoor went off the track shortly before one-quarter distance. The factory Bentley challenge came to an end shortly after half-distance: Andy Meyrick crashed the #7 Continental GT3 at Les Combes in the seventh hour and the #8 car went out with a technical problem. The two VonRyan McLaren 650S GT3s also suffered delays and were running in 28th and 29th positions.

Originally on Autosport.com