Porsche celebrates 1-2 victory at 24 Hours of Spa endurance classic
Credit to Author: THE MANILA TIMES| Date: Mon, 05 Aug 2019 16:16:30 +0000
With a strong effort from its teams, Porsche won the 24 Hours of Spa. The GPX Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R crewed by the current FIA WEC Sportscar World Champions Kévin Estre, Michael Christensen and Austria’s Richard Lietz finished first at the Belgian long distance classic after 363 laps, securing Porsche the seventh overall success from the most important GT3 event. The German marque beat fierce rivals Mercedes-AMG and Audi to climb the top step of the podium and capture a one-two finish in the world’s toughest GT race.
The Race
The Porsche 911 GT3 R fielded by Rowe Racing (No. 998) rounded off the one-two victory of the Porsche teams at the marathon in the Ardennes. Five of the six Pro-cars from Porsche finished the 71st running of the 24 Hours of Spa in the top ten.
Right from the start, the rain played the leading role at the 24-hour classic in Belgium. In the early hours of Sunday morning, the race had to be stopped for almost six hours due to heavy downpours. But even this interruption couldn’t end the victorious drive of the No. 20 Porsche 911 GT3 R. The crew with Estre, Christensen and Lietz, which had been relegated down the field by a drive-through penalty in the evening, put in an impressive charge through the field. When the race was halted, the driver trio had made it back to eighth place with a series of flawless and constantly fast stints and made up more positions after the race was restarted. With two hours to go, the GT3 R driven by Estre took the lead, which the Frenchman held driving the slick-shod car on a damp track surface. After nine years, it was time to celebrate again for Porsche at the prestigious endurance classic in the Ardennes. The No. 998 ROWE Porsche Racing machine shared by Nick Tandy, Patrick Pilet and Frederic Makowiecki completed a fine run to second, with the No. 4 Mercedes-AMG of Marco Engel, Luca Stolz and Yelmer Buurman in third after an outstanding showing in the Ardennes.
Audi Sport Team Sainteloc was fourth, a repeat of last year’s result for Markus Winkelhock, Christopher Haase and Frederic Vervisch. Another ROWE Porsche was fifth, thanks to Romain Dumas, Mathieu Jaminet and Sven Müller, while Honda scored a superb sixth-place finish from 33rd on the grid with its lone Pro class NSX GT3.
“Congratulations to our customer teams at Spa. The effort of the engineers, strategists, the pit crews, and the drivers impressed me deeply. They all co-operated with our support crew from Weissach in the best possible way. We’ve scored this victory together. And the Porsche 911 again proved to be the car to beat at sports car races,” Porsche Motorsport Vice President Fritz Enzinger said.
“This was another typically crazy race at Spa. We had to master various weather conditions and aquaplaning. With tough wheel-to-wheel racing we conquered one position after the other, we were on slicks in the rain and on wets on the drying track. During the last 30 minutes of the race there were yellow and safety car phases – the way to our victory was truly a tough piece of work. But after the race was halted in the morning we were confident to have the right strategy to make it to the top.
I am proud of our team that only started the co-operation with Porsche this year. And I am proud to be a member of this squad,” Estre, who piloted the Porsche 911 GT3 R No. 20, said.
A total of 248 drivers took up the 24 hour classic at Spa-Francorchamps in 72 cars. Eleven marques were represented at the 71st running of the Ardennes marathon that is regarded the world’s most important GT3 event.