The 78th running of the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa will be remembered as an absolute classic. Played out under a punishing summer heatwave in front of a record-breaking weekend crowd of 132,000 spectators, the biggest GT3 race on earth delivered 24 hours of unrelenting tactical chess, brutal punctures, and a historic narrative that rewrote the sportscar racing history books.
The Impossible Triumph: Lionspeed GP’s Miracle Run
The overarching headline of the weekend belongs to the #80 Lionspeed GP Porsche 911 GT3 R. Seemingly buried before the green flag even waved due to a terminal engine failure following Thursday’s traditional driver parade, the squad was forced into an unscheduled engine swap. The resulting penalty was a mandated start from the cold isolation of the pit lane, forcing drivers Thomas Preining, Ricardo Feller, and Bastian Buus to watch the other 68 cars thunder past before they could even begin their race. What followed was a Masterclass in endurance execution.
The Lionspeed crew played a meticulous long game through a chaotic, incident-filled opening quarter featuring 10 Safety Cars and 14 Full Course Yellows. While rivals got tangled in multi-car traffic or pushed the track limits too far, the #80 Porsche quietly sliced forward, utilizing its phenomenal high-fuel balance to work its way into the top 15 by midnight. The car truly came alive as dawn broke over the Ardennes on Sunday morning. Strapped in for a ferocious triple-stint at 8:30 AM, DTM champion Thomas Preining put on a clinic, charging all the way to the front to claim P1 for the first time.
When a mistimed Full Course Yellow threatened to undo their hard work by shuffling them to the tail of a four-car lead battle, the Lionspeed pit wall pulled off a tactical masterstroke. Launching an aggressive undercut strategy at the close of the 19th hour, they brought Preining in early for fresh rubber. The blistering out-lap allowed them to jump the leading Mercedes-AMG in clear air. Preining managed the gap beautifully over the final hours, crossing the finish line with a 12.288-second margin to secure Porsche’s ninth victory at Spa and the first-ever victory from the pit lane in the event’s history.
The Heavy Hitters: Mercedes and Ferrari’s Bitter Near-Misses
While Porsche celebrated, it was a weekend of agonizing “what-ifs” for the other major manufacturers. Mercedes-AMG Team MANN-FILTER looked poised to spoil the Porsche party. The #48 Mamba GT3, piloted by the elite trio of Maro Engel, Luca Stolz, and Lucas Auer, ran a fundamentally flawless race. They took advantage of the chaotic night stints to position themselves at the head of the field, but they ultimately lacked the outright single-lap pace to retaliate against Porsche’s late-race undercut, settling for a hard-fought second place.
The fastest car on track undoubtedly belonged to Maranello, but the #51 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 was utterly snakebitten by the puncture lottery. Having secured a brilliant pole position courtesy of Alessio Rovera, the car led the opening four hours comfortably until Nicklas Nielsen suffered a devastating left-rear blowout right past the Bus Stop chicane. Forced to limp a heavily vibrating car around the entire seven-kilometer circuit, they dropped to a dismal 45th place.
In an unbelievable showcase of resilience, Tommaso Mosca, Nielsen, and Rovera fought all the way back into the lead conversation by Sunday morning, only to suffer a second puncture after wheel-to-wheel contact at Les Combes in the 19th hour. Despite dropping back again, Rovera set the fastest lap of the race (a blistering 2:17.340) and executed a sensational around-the-outside pass at Les Combes in the final hour to rescue a bittersweet third step on the podium.
Class Warfare: BMW’s Attrition Triumph and Corvette’s History
Beyond the outright Pro-Cup war, the sub-classes delivered matching levels of high-stakes drama.
- Gold Cup: The victory was collected by the #998 ROWE Racing BMW M4 GT3. The “Generation M” lineup of Jens Klingmann, Ugo de Wilde, and Tim Tramnitz put together a beautifully clean run amid extreme 35°C track temperatures, inheriting a massive six-lap class lead after their primary rival, the Optimum Motorsport McLaren, hit mechanical trouble on Sunday morning. It provided a silver lining for BMW, whose overall Pro hopes faded after the highly favored #46 Team WRT car (featuring Valentino Rossi) struggled to match the front-running pace, finishing a lonely sixth.
- Silver Cup: The class honors went down to a thrilling tactical chess match between Rinaldi Racing and Team WRT. Alessandro Balzan put on a phenomenal final stint in the #45 Ferrari, pulling away from Amaury Cordeel’s WRT BMW to seal the class win by just 11.5 seconds.
- Bronze Cup & Pro-Am: Ferrari added a second trophy to its cabinet with Kessel Racing dominating the Bronze category and securing a fantastic 10th place finish in the overall classification. Meanwhile, a piece of modern American muscle history was carved out in the Pro-Am division, where JMR guided their Corvette to a spectacular class victory—marking the first time a Corvette chassis has tasted champagne at Spa since the marque’s famous outright victory in 2009.