Mirko Bortolotti, Jordan Pepper and Luca Engstler took a long-awaited maiden victory for Lamborghini in the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa as GRT Grasser Racing Team triumphed in the 78th running of the Ardennes endurance classic.
The No. 63 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 came out on top in a late-race strategic battle with the No. 96 Rutronik Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R of Alessio Picariello, Sven Mueller and Patric Niederhauser, with the two cars separated by 8.703 seconds at the line.
The result marks a breakthrough first win in the event for Lamborghini after repeated misfortunes in recent years, also becoming the sixth different brand to win in as many years after Porsche, Ferrari, Mercedes-AMG, BMW and Aston Martin.
After an opening phase that was largely dominated by the No. 59 Garage 59 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo, No. 163 Vincenzo Sospiri Lamborghini and No. 17 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, the No. 63 crew came to the front approaching the halfway point.
This came after a dramatic turn of events in which the No. 17 Mercedes-AMG Team GetSpeed car, which looked like a victory contender across the opening half, was eliminated after a collision from the No. 99 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II at La Source.
Although a pitstop under the subsequent Full Course Yellow ensured the No. 998 ROWE Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO led the race at the halfway point, the No. 63 car gradually took control of the race as Sunday morning dawned.
With both BMW and Ferrari unable to challenge the leading Lamborghini on outright pace, the No. 96 Rutronik Racing Porsche emerged as Grasser’s main challenger for victory.
Running on an off-sequence strategy, Rutronik was able to seize the race lead with three hours remaining when a scheduled pitstop coincided perfectly with a Full Course Yellow after the No. 15 BMW Italia Ceccato Racing BMW stopped at Pouhon.
This allowed Picariello to capture the lead of the race, only for co-driver Mueller to then come under significant pressure from a charging Bortolotti.
The pendulum swung back in Lamborghini’s favor when the No. 96 Porsche suffered a rear right puncture at Blanchimont moments before a scheduled stop, which allowed Bortolotti to slip back into the race lead.
However, a stall for Bortolotti during his final stop lost him nearly seven seconds, allowing Niederhauser close to within a second heading into the final 30 minutes before the No. 63 car pulled away again.
The battle for the final spot on the podium, fought between the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 and No. 98 ROWE Racing BMW, was decided in the Prancing Horse’s favor when Raffaele Marciello received a 30-second penalty for track limits deep inside the final hour.
That was despite a bold late-race pass by Marciello with 20 minutes to go, which saw the BMW take to the grass on the Kemmel Straight to overtake Pier Guidi on the latter’s lap out of the pits,
By finishing third, Alessandro Pier Guidi, Vincent Abril and Alessio Rovera completed a strong comeback drive after a braking issue put the No. 51 car a lap down in the opening stages.
Marciello, Jesse Krohn and Augusto Farfus were classified in fifth, with the No. 50 AF Corse Ferrari driven by Antonio Fuoco, Eliseo Donno and Arthur Leclerc fourth.
The No. 59 Garage 59 McLaren driven by Joseph Loake, Marvin Kirchhoefer and Benjamin Goethe finished sixth, with the No. 32 and No. 31 Team WRT BMWs coming home in seventh and eighth respectively.
The battle for the Gold Cup class victory was decided late in dramatic fashion after the No. 58 Garage 59 McLaren suffered a rear right puncture with under ten minutes to go.
Adam Smalley, Louis Prette, Dean MacDonald and Frederik Schandorff had been engaged in a lengthy battle with the No. 33 Verstappen dot Com Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo when the puncture struck.
As a result, Thierry Vermeulen, Harry King and Chris Lulham took the class victory in ninth overall, with the No. 48 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo completing the top ten.
The Mann-Filter Mamba-liveried machine was the only car from the Stuttgart marque in the top ten as both GetSpeed Performance and Boutsen VDS fell by the wayside in an attrition-heavy race for the Pro squads.
First among the Pro contenders to be eliminated was the No. 22 Schumacher CLRT Porsche of Ayhancan Guven, Klaus Bachler and Laurin Heinrich after the latter, unsighted, smashed into the back of the No. 112 CSA Racing McLaren in a high-speed crash at Blanchimont in the second hour.
Notably, the No. 9 Boutsen VDS Mercedes-AMG would suffer damage to the cooling system after running through the debris field, which eventually led to its retirement.
A power steering issue brought a premature end to Vincenzo Sospiri Racing’s victory bid after the No. 163 Lamborghini was an early front runner while Comtoyou Racing was forced to retire its No. 007 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo with a drivetrain issue in the tenth hour.
Both the No. 18 Dinamic GT and No. 911 Pure Rxcing Porsches also failed to finish as a result of a wheel bearing failure and steering rack problem, respectively.
Another late casualty was the No. 998 ROWE Racing BMW of Philipp Eng, Dan Harper and Max Hesse, which was pushed into the garage deep within the final hour due to a braking issue.
Walkenhorst Motorsport claimed the Silver Cup victory with the No. 35 Aston Martin of Romain Leroux, Oliver Soederstroem and Matteo Villagomez.
The German squad finished one position ahead of the Bronze Cup-winning No. 74 Ferrari of Dustin Blattner, Conrad Laursen, Dennis Marschall and Zach Robichon.
Pro-Am honors, meanwhile, went to Mathieu Detry, Noam Abramczyk, Fabbian Duffieux and Bo Yuan in their No. 29 AV Racing by Car Collection Motorsport Porsche.
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