SPA 24H: BMW wins after Bentley battle

BMW claimed a second consecutive Spa 24 Hours victory after a thrilling battle with Bentley that lasted much of the race.

Rowe Racing trio Alexander Sims, Philipp Eng and Maxime Martin took victory aboard their BMW M6 GT3 at the end of a race interrupted by 15 full-course yellows, three safety cars and two periods of wet running.

The factory-backed team followed up on the Marc VDS squad's victory last year with the Z4 GT3 and gave BMW its 23rd overall win in the Spa enduro.

Rowe triumphed by just under two minutes from the Auto Sport Promotion Mercedes-AMG GT3 in a confused finish to the double-points round of the Blancpain GT Series that followed a heavy shower in the closing stages.

The Mercedes shared by Felix Rosenqvist, Renger van der Zande and Tristan Vautier ended up just over five seconds up on the WRT Audi R8 LMS of Laurens Vanthoor, Rene Rast and Nico Muller.

The BMW had come out on top of a thrilling battle with the best of the M-Sport Bentley Continental GT3s with three hours to go and was approximately two minutes clear when the rain returned with half an hour left.

"It's pure relief that it is over," Eng said "We had good luck in the yellows and bad luck in the yellows, and to be here on top is amazing."

Martin, who finally emulated his father Jean-Michel and uncle Philippe by winning Spa, described the triumph as "just the best victory."

Rosenqvist hung onto to second after a late challenge from Vanthoor when the race went green for the final 15 minutes. The Audi driver got within two seconds of the Mercedes, but ultimately fell short in his bid to take the runner-up spot.

Both cars suffered major delays during the race. The ASP works entry was one of six Mercedes to be awarded a five-minute stop-and-go penalty for running illegal ignition mapping in qualifying. The Audi lost time to repairs in the sixth hour and then had its fightback blunted in the final stages by a puncture and a drive-through penalty.

The M-Sport Bentley Continental GT3 ended up only fourth in the hands of Andy Soucek, Maxime Soulet and Wolfgang Reip after losing time in the final, confused round of pit stops.

The second Mercedes, the HTP Motorsport car shared by Gary Paffett, Maximilian Gotz and Thomas Jager, lost third with a drivethrough following an unsafe release in the final round of stops. It ended up fifth ahead of the sister car driven by Maximilian Buhk, Jazeman Jaafar and Dominik Baumann.

Honors in the pro-am class went to the Imsa Performance Porsche 911 GT3-R driven by Patrick Pilet, Maxime Jousse, Thierry Comac and team owner Raymond Narac. They were a lap up at the finish on the ISR Audi shared by Frank Perera, Nicolas Lapierre, Henry Hassid and Philippe Giauque.

Originally on Autosport.com