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The Scuderia Praha Ferrari 488 GT3 (#11, Jiri Pisarik/Josef Král/Matteo Malucelli) will start the inaugural 24H PORTIMAO from pole position.

Matteo Malucelli qualified quickest for the season finale of the 2017 24H SERIES, lapping the 4.653 kilometre Autódromo Internacional do Algarve circuit in 1:44.524 minutes.

Outpaced by only 0.011 seconds, the GP Extreme Renault RS01 FGT3 (#28, Jean-Pierre Valentini/Jordan Grogor/Nicky Pastorelli/Axcil Jefferies/Pierre Brice Mena) will start from second on the grid. With an overall margin of 0.488 seconds, the GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracán GT3 (#963, Christoph Lenz/Roberto Pampanini/Milos Pavlovic/Rik Breukers/Mauro Calamia) settled for third.

Quickest A6-Am team was the GP Extreme Renault RS01 FGT3 (#27, Frederic Fatien/Stuart Hall/Nicky Pastorelli/Tiziano Carugati/Bassam Kronfli). With his lap time of 1:47.444 minutes, Stuart Hall went into seventh position overall. .

The Car Collection Motorsport Audi R8 LMS (#32, Horst Felbermayr Jr./Henry Littig/Klaus Koch/Toni Forné/Peter Schmidt) missed the class lead by just 0.021 seconds. The Herberth Motorsport Porsche 991 GT3 R (#911, Daniel Allemann/Ralf Bohn/Robert Renauer/Alfred Renauer) is entered in the A6-Am class this time and qualified third.

The A6-Am squads will have to run according to a minimum reference lap time throughout the 24 hour distance, but can go much further on one fuel load, which keeps up their podium ambitions.

The SP2 top spots went to three Porsche teams. Charles Espenlaub in the PROsport Performance Porsche 991 Cup (#85, Charles Putman/Charles Espenlaub/Joe Foster/Andy Pilgrim) outpaced the IDEC SPORT RACING Porsche 991 Cup (#75, David Abramczyk/Stephane Adler/Romain Vozniak/Michael Blanchemain/Christophe Cresp) by 1.664 seconds. 0.376 seconds further down, the B2F compétition Porsche 991 Cup (#35, Benoit Fretin/Bruno Fretin/Michel Mitieus/Jean-Charles Levy) reached the third spot.

Qualifying was held in two sessions of 45 minutes each. Before the A6 and SP2 cars went out, the SP3-GT4 and the TCR machinery had set their times in the first session.

Quickest in that session was the Optimum Motorsport Ginetta G55 GT4 (#231, Dan O'Brien/Aleksander Schjerpen/Oliver Wilkinson). Irishman Dan O'Brien set his time of 1:54.507 minutes in the early stages and rested the car for the rest of the session, confident that the three driver lineup has gained enough track experience. Their only class rival, the production-based Parkalgar Racing Team Honda Civic Type R (#188, Chris Hoy/Roger Green/Joaquim Penteado/Peter Brookes/Matt Brookes), was almost 17 seconds slower.

From second to last place, six-time Olympic gold medalist Chris Hoy will start his first 24 hour race since his 2016 campaign at Le Mans.

With the top three cars within one and a half seconds, the gaps in the TCR class were much closer. The Team Altran Peugeot Peugeot 308 Racing Cup (#908, Stéphane Ventaja/Gonzalo Martin de Andres/Thierry Boyer/Thierry Chkondali) set the pace with a time of 1:58.194 minutes, posted by Gonzalo Martin de Andres. The Cadspeed Racing Audi RS3 LMS TCR SEQ (#108, Ricky Coomber/David Drinkwater/James Kaye/Jim Briody/Erik Holstein) followed with a 0.242 second gap.

On his final run, James Kaye actually went quicker than Gonzalo Martin de Andres, but got his time deleted for a track limit offense. The B2F compétition Peugeot 308 Racing Cup (#335, Thomas Fretin/Pascal Colon/Laetitia Tortelier/Régis Paillard) qualified third. The second Team Altran Peugeot, the Team Altran Peugeot Peugeot 308 Racing Cup (#308, Thierry Blaise/Kim Holmgaard/Michael Carlsen/Mathieu Sentis), failed to set a lap time with an ongoing gearbox change after free practice.

Night practice will be held from 20.30 hrs till 22.00 hrs local time tonight. Tomorrow, there is a warm-up from 11.00 hrs till 11.30 hrs.

 

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With second place for the #8 car, Bentley Team M-Sport made up for its misfortune in last year’s race at Spa. The #90 Akka ASP Mercedes rounded out the top three with the second consecutive podium finish at Spa for the French team.

 Mercedes-AMG took Pro-Am class honours with a strong performance by the #16 Black Falcon team while the #888 Kessel Racing Ferrari led almost throughout to score a commanding Am class win. The Belgian Speedlover team won the national class with its #991 Porsche.

With 63 cars taking the start and no fewer than 36 of them competing for overall honours, there was no doubt that this year’s running of the 24 Hours of Spa had one of the strongest entries ever in the history of the Belgian endurance racing classic. Qualifying had already made it clear that a fierce battle could be expected among the teams representing the world’s most prestigious sports car brands, and the race duly delivered.

Once the field was released after one formation lap of the 7.004 kilometres long circuit, it was ex-Formula 1 driver Giancarlo Fisichella who made the best use of the pole position and took the lead with the #55 Kaspersky Motorsport Ferrari, ahead of compatriot Mirko Bortolotti in the #63 GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini and Kévin Estre in the #117 KÜS Team75 Bernhard Porsche.

While the Ferrari and the Lamborghini shone at the front of the field throughout the first hours of the race, the second hour saw the first of several full-course yellows and a subsequent safety car intervention due to a severe crash by Thai driver Pasin Lathouras, who lost control of his #50 AF Corse Ferrari at the top of the Raidillon. Luckily, the driver walked away unscathed.

Several teams used the neutralisation to come in for pit stops with the different pit stop strategies applied by the teams leading to frequent position changes throughout the field. Meanwhile, it was also clear that the Race Control was watching drivers’ antics closely as there were penalties galore, particularly for track limit infringements.

As the first points were awarded after six hours, the #55 Kaspersky Motorsport Ferrari was leading from the #63 GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini and the #84 Mercedes-AMG Team HTP Motorsport Mercedes and no fewer than 16 cars were still on the lead lap after the first quarter of the race. Soon after the six-hour mark, Swedish driver Jimmy Eriksson crashed the #84 Mercedes-AMG Team HTP Motorsport car at Raidillon.

Temperatures were above 20 degrees until midnight, allowing the thousands of spectators to enjoy the entertainment both on and off track, including the Music Festival with several top-line DJs and live acts on a balmy Saturday evening. During the night, however, the rain shower that so many had expected finally arrived, spicing up the action even more whilst also making it more challenging for the drivers, as if the Spa-Francorchamps circuit wasn’t challenging enough in itself. Most drivers opted for rain tyres, but some gambled and stayed out with slicks. There were incidents, too, including a collision that put two Mercedes cars out at once, the #00 Good Smile Racing car and the #18 Black Falcon Mercedes. Earlier on, the #88 AKKA ASP Mercedes had already retired after a crash.

Halfway through the race, points were attributed again and this time, it was the #63 GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini who claimed the full score ahead of the #85 HTP Motorsport Mercedes and the #55 Kaspersky Motorsport Ferrari. In the 14th hour, the #77 Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini and the #11 Kessel Racing Ferrari collided at Stavelot corner, after which the Lamborghini caught fire. Its driver, Adrian Amstutz, was taken to hospital in Liège where he was diagnosed with second-degree burns and a broken rib. The Ferrari driver, Matteo Cressoni, was transferred to hospital in Verviers for a check-up. There was well-deserved praise for the track marshals and rescue teams for their quick intervention.

A little bit later, the Kaspersky Motorsport team that had led the race for many hours saw its hopes of a possible victory evaporate as Marco Cioci came off track at the Raidillon with damaged steering, the result of contact with the #90 Akka ASP Mercedes at La Source. About twohours later, the other Italian GT car that shone for a long time, the #63 GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini, retired when Christian Engelhart crashed out at Les Combes with brake issues.

This effectively turned the battle for the lead into an almost entirely German affair with the Porsche, several Audis, the #98 ROWE Racing BMW and a number of Mercedes-AMG cars in contention, while the #8 Bentley Team M-Sport Bentley defended British honours. Suspension issues then put to an end ROWE Racing’s ambitions of a repeat win after their 2016 success.

In the afternoon, the Saintéloc Audi emerged as the main candidate for success and as the last car from the group of the front-runners, the #117 KÜS Team75 Bernhard Porsche, completed his final pit stop on lap 527, it was left up to German driver Christopher Haase, who had pitted six laps earlier, to bring the Audi across the finish line, which he duly did after 546 laps, scoring Saintéloc’s first 24-hour race win as an Audi Sport team. The #8 Bentley came second ahead of the #90 Akka ASP Mercedes. The #117 KÜS Team75 Bernhard Porsche was classified fourth, making Laurens Vanthoor the best-placed Belgian driver in the overall classification.

Pro-Am honours for Black Falcon
The #97 Oman Racing Team with TF Sport Aston Martin led the Pro-Am class for the opening hours of the race, but a spirited drive with consistently fast lap times resulted into good progress for the #16 Black Falcon Mercedes that then moved up into the lead of the class in the evening and held on to its class lead throughout the race. Its drivers Oliver Morley, Miguel Toril, Marvin Kirchhöfer and Maximilian Götz finished twelfth overall, one lap ahead of class-runners-up Ahmad Al Harthy, Salih Yoluc, Jonny Adam and Euan Hankey with the Aston Martin. For Adam and Al Harty, the points scored at Spa were already enough to seal an early Blancpain GT Series Pro-Am drivers’ title and to rack up the title win for the Oman Racing Team with TF Sport as well. Third place in class went to the #961 Spirit of Race Ferrari with Alex Demerdjian, Nicolas Minassian, Davide Rizzo and Toni Vilander.

Am-Cup: Kessel Racing Ferrari throughout
A faultless performance by Swiss team Kessel Racing and its drivers Marco Zanuttini, Jacques Duyver, David Perel and Niki Cadei in the #888 Ferrari 488 GT3 was rewarded with a commanding class win, the team’s second Am class victory in a row in the 24 Hours of Spa. The team led in class almost from lights to flag and won with a margin of four laps from the #488 Rinaldi Racing Ferrari of Pierre Ehret, Rino Mastronardi, Patrick van Glabeke and Gabriele Lancieri. German team Walkenhorst Motorsport took the final podium slot with its #36 BMW driven by David Schiwietz, Stef Vancampenhoudt, Henry Walkenhorst and Ralf Oeverhaus.

Ferrari wins Coupe du Roi in its anniversary year
Fitting for the year in which the legendary Italian sports car manufacturer is celebrating its 70th anniversary, Ferrari won the prestigious Coupe du Roi for the best performance by a manufacturer in the tof the three classes.

National class honours for Speedlover Porsche
Only two Porsche cars were entered in the national class and once the #56 RMS Porsche had retired, it was only a matter for the drivers of the #991 Speedlover car to bring the Porsche home to collect the class honours. They did this in a masterful way and thus, Pierre Yves Paque, Grégory Paisse, Thierry de Latre du Bosqueau and Louis-Philippe Soenen were able to celebrate in front of their home crowd.

Markus Winkelhock (#25 Audi Sport Team Saintéloc, 1st): “Not only the first, the second victory as well is very important. I think everybody will agree that this one is the toughest 24-hour races there is, so if you can win it, it’s very nice. When we were two laps down with twelve hours to go, we thought: ‘Well, maybe we can still get into the top-5’. I never expected that we would get a chance to win this race. That shows you never should give up in life.”

Maxime Soulet (#8 Bentley Team M-Sport Continental, 2nd): “I tried to catch the Audi at the beginning of my last stint, but when I realised I was not getting any closer, I stopped fighting. This second place still feels like a win, though. It was a very hard fight, we all agree that this was the toughest Spa we ever did. It’s a first podium for Bentley in Spa, I heard that everybody was crying when I crossed the line.”

Michael Meadows (#90 AKKA ASP Mercedes-AMG, 3rd): “From about three hours to go we thought we might be short. It was then just a question of where we would come out again, whether it would third, fifth or second. To be honest, I am quite relieved that we finished on the podium, for it has been a tough race, as we saw with some of the other cars. Raffaelle did a fabulous job in his first 24 hours as well, doing four triple stints. That is quite impressive.”

Oliver Morley (#16 Black Falcon Mercedes-AMG, 1st Pro-Am Cup): “The depth of talent throughout the whole field – in Pro, in Pro-Am, in Am – is just astounding. For me personally, it is a real privilege to be in the company of these guys – Le Mans winners, Spa overall winners, young and upcoming talents. I am very pleased that Mercedes-AMG, Black Falcon and my teammates have made it possible to fulfil a boyhood dream. I never thought this was possible, and certainly not on the top step.”

Ahmad Al Harthy (#97 Oman Racing Team with TF Sport Aston Martin, 2017 Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup Pro-Am champion): “Honestly, the team only told me when I crossed the line. This title is something that I have been dreaming about for a couple of years. I think this my fifth attempt at the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup. I am really proud of this title, sharing it with Jonny, and Euan and Salih played an important part in it as well.”

David Perel (#888 Kessel Racing Ferrari, 1st Am Cup): “Three years ago, I was watching this race on YouTube! I never thought that I would be on the top step so shortly after trying to get into this race. We followed our plan and took no risks. Our car was amazing, we had no unscheduled pitstops, it was an amazing day for all of us.

Pierre-Yves Paque (#991 Speedlover Porsche, 1st Groupe National): “It was a perfect race, but we managed to avoid all pitfalls. We also have to thank André Van Hoof of Speedlover, who gave us a magnificent car. Without his great work, we would not have made it here.”

 

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Of course, having a season finale at the end of August is really early, but there is a good excuse as many teams will be sending their cars and equipment to the United States for the inaugural 24H COTA (10-12 November, 2017).

The race at the Circuit Of The Americas is a non-championship round of the 24H SERIES, but counts towards the Championship of the Continents. Firstly, however, the focus is on the 24H PORTIMAO (25-27 August, 2017), where the battle for the titles in the 2017 24H SERIES powered by Hankook will be decided.

With 1.5 times the regular number of points at stake for this race, excitement is guaranteed in the Portuguese Algarve region.

The race at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve in Portimao is the first event of the CREVENTIC SERIES in Portugal.

The track was opened in October, 2008 and has, among others, hosted rounds of the Superbike World Championship, the GT1 World Championship, the Blancpain GT Series, TCR International Series, FIA World Touring Car Championship and the FIA Formula 3 European Championship. The track has also been used for Formula 1 test sessions.

In the A6, 991 and SP2 classes, most of the regular teams will be present in Portugal, including the Herberth Motorsport, Scuderia Praha and Car Collection Motorsport outfits, all outright race winners in this year’s 24H SERIES.

Particularly interesting is the 24H debut of the Mercedes-AMG GT4 in the hands of German team, Black Falcon. Even though the Hankook 24H BARCELONA is following one week after Portimao, touring cars are fairly well represented, too, with five teams competing in TCR and two entrants in the A3 class.

A noteworthy competitor is Sir Chris Hoy, a six-time Olympic gold medallist and eleven-time world champion in cycling who has now been involved in endurance racing for some years. The Scot will be racing a Honda for the Parkalgar Racing Team.

In the overall GT teams’ standings, Hofor-Racing and PROsport performance are jointly in the lead, only two points ahead of Herberth Motorsport and 14 points clear of Belgian teams Speedlover and VDS Racing Adventures who are tied in third place.

Only one point further down, Car Collection Motorsport is in fourth place. The two Team Altran Peugeot entries are first and second in the overall touring car teams’ standings, separated by only six points. Swiss lady racer Chantal Kroll is already certain of another Ladies’ Cup title win while German Max Edelhoff is comfortably leading the rookie standings.

After rent-a-car rides and optional private tests on Thursday, 24 August, official track action starts on Friday, 25 August, with free practice from 14.00 till 15.30 hrs, followed by qualifying in two groups from 16.45 till 18.30 hrs and night practice from 20.30 till 22.00 hrs. On Saturday, there is a warm-up from 11.00 till 11.30 hrs.

The race starts at 15.30 hrs and ends on Sunday at the same time, followed by a prize-giving ceremony.

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For the first time since the 24 Hours of Spa have been part of the Blancpain GT Series, a Ferrari will start from pole position.

James Calado clocked a superb 2’17.390, the fastest-ever lap of a GT3 car on the Spa track, at the wheel of the #55 Kaspersky Motorsport Ferrari. Mirko Bortolotti (#63 Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini) will be next to him on the front row, with Belgian drivers Frédéric Vervisch (#2 Audi Sport Team WRT R8) and Laurens Vanthoor (#117 KÜS Team75 Bernhard Porsche) sharing the second row.

Rainclouds threatened the Spa circuit at the start of the Superpole, but the track remained dry for the whole of the session. The times of the warm-up – held just half an hour earlier – indicated that the pole position time of the 69th edition of the 24 Hours of Spa could possibly be the fastest lap ever.

This was quickly confirmed by René Rast (#1 Audi Sport Team WRT R8) and Laurens Vanthoor in the KÜS Team75 Bernhard Porsche, who both broke the 2’18-barrier. The Belgian’s time was 0.052 quicker than Rast’s, but the German did not stay second for long.
Jonny Adam created a surprise by clocking exactly the same time as Laurens Vanthoor, driving the #97 Oman Racing Team with TF Sport Aston Martin. However, their 2’17.674 was not enough to start from the front row.

First Mirko Bortolotti went quicker, followed in quick succession by James Calado and Fred Vervisch. Calado’s time turned out to be fast enough to give Ferrari its first pole position since the 24 Hours of Spa became part of the Blancpain GT Series.

After the session, the stewards of the meeting penalised Jonny Adam for having started outside his allocated time window, deleting his fastest lap time. The Aston driver dropped to seventh, but held on to pole in the Pro-Am Cup.

James Calado (#55 Kaspersky Motorsport Ferrari): “I am really happy with this pole position, although I fully realise that it is not really important in a 24-hour-race. The car felt great, but since I made a small mistake in the final corner, I did not think it would be enough. I’ll take it, though!”

Mirko Bortolotti (#63 Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini): “Yesterday was a bit hectic, and we left it very late to get into the top-20 for Superpole. Today went a lot better, my lap was fully committed, and I though it would be enough for pole position. James was just a fraction quicker, so congratulations to him.”

Fred Vervisch (#2 Audi Sport Team WRT R8): “It feels great to be among the frontrunners, especially considering the high level of the drivers here. But I know that a good starting position does not change a lot for the race. It is still a bit more comfortable to start at the front, though.”

Jonny Adam (#97 Oman Racing Team with TF Sport Aston Martin, 1st Pro-Am Cup): “I wanted to get up the grid as high as possible, to prove that our Aston is still a very competitive car. The fact that we have more than a dozen cars between ourselves and the next car in Pro-Am will make our life a bit easier in the early hours, but it will still be a tough race.”

 

         

 

 

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