Weekend Recap: Mercedes-AMG Wins Big in 24 Hours of Spa
Results and reaction from the 74th TotalEnergies 24 Hours of Spa...
Raffaele Marciello, Daniel Juncadella and Jules Gounon won the TotalEnergies 24 Hours of Spa for AMG Team Akkodis ASP, giving Mercedes its first victory in the Belgian endurance classic since 2013.
The No. 88 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo started the race from pole but Marciello was immediately overtaken by the No. 54 Dinamic Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R of Klaus Bachler at the start.
After both fellow AMG squads GetSpeed and GruppeM held the lead throughout the first quarter of the race, the No. 98 BMW M4 GT3 began to move to the front and Nicky Catsburg moved out front on the brink of the sixth hour.
From there, the German squad largely remained out front through a red flag caused by a heavy crash for the No. 16 EBM Giga Porsche of Matthew Payne and reached the halfway point as leaders.
The team’s mandatory technical stop in the early hours of Sunday morning allowed the No. 47 KCMG Porsche, driven by Nick Tandy, to capture the lead from Iron Lynx’s Davide Rigon. The Porsche had started the race in last position and worked its way into the lead places throughout the night.
After a battle with Marciello, a well-timed stop under a caution caused by Walkenhorst Motorsport’s Richard Heistand allowed ROWE’s Catsburg to retake the lead.
However, a poorly timed stop under a subsequently lengthy safety car triggered by a heavy crash for Garage 59’s Miguel Ramos caused his co-driver Yelloly to fall back behind both Akkodis ASP and KCMG.
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All-Female Iron Dames Lineup Takes Historic Gold Class Win
Iron Dames’ breakthrough class victory in the TotalEnergies 24 Hours of Spa feels like “just the beginning” for the program according to Rahel Frey, who believes the past four years of work paid off on Sunday.
Frey, along with Sarah Boy, Michelle Gatting and Doriane Pin, took the No. 83 Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 to Gold Cup honors in the Belgian endurance classic by finishing 18th overall and well clear of the second-placed No. 33 WRT Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II.
It was the first-ever victory for the all-female squad in an endurance race since the Iron Lynx-led program was first set up in 2019.
Frey, who has been with the team since its early days, feels like Sunday’s class win was the culmination of its years of work and also a springboard to further success.
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Pedal Box Issue Put Winning Mercedes “Close to Retirement”
Daniel Juncadella revealed that the overnight red flag potentially saved his winning No. 88 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo from retirement at the TotalEnergies 24 Hours of Spa because the Spaniard had been struggling with a loose pedal box prior to the stoppage.
The AMG Team Akkodis ASP lineup of Juncadella, Jules Gounon and Raffaele Marciello delivered a breakthrough win for Mercedes-AMG on Sunday, giving the manufacturer its first overall victory at Spa since 2013.
However, Juncadella revealed after the race that he encountered an unexpected problem when he took the car over from co-driver Marciello for one of the night stints.
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ROWE BMW Was “Able to Fight” for Win Until Puncture
Nick Yelloly felt that his No. 98 ROWE Racing BMW M4 GT3 was “able to fight” for the win at the TotalEnergies 24 Hours of Spa until a puncture prevented it from challenging.
The British driver was running third with just under two hours to go when his car’s right-rear Pirelli tire went down on the entry to Pouhon corner, while the lost time spent crawling back to the pits contributed to a sixth-place finish.
Yelloly, who teamed up with Augusto Farfus and Nicky Catsburg, told Sportscar365 that the puncture’s cause was not immediately clear; however its outcome was an obvious blow to the ROWE team’s chances.
With two and a half hours to go, Yelloly overtook Iron Lynx Ferrari driver Daniel Serra on the Kemmel Straight and worked his way onto the tail of eventual winner Marciello.
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