FIA GT – TOTAL Spa 24 Hours – Hours 16, 17 & 18
Fassler, A Short DBR9 - Then Lamy

Ramos in #2 receives a drive through penalty as they go racing again.

Anthony Kumpen: “Kurt (Mollekens) decided to stay out on slicks – it was a brave choice, but the right one.

Marcel Fassler has a lap on Eric van de Poele – and it’s Fassler on previous form again, pulling away, building an even bigger lead.

07.30, and Fassler leads by a lap and 24 seconds.

“The Corvette is so fast,” said Eric van de Poele, before he got into the #1 Corvette.

van de Poele also confirmed what Pedro Lamy said yesterday, that the Maseratis weren’t very pleasant to drive in the early hours of the race, but they did get a little better, “but they are still like this (gesture under chin).”

Fassler keeps lapping in 2:18s – no one else can get below 2:20. Then he sets a 2:17.2.

Tech 9’s Porsche is fourth in GT2. Ebimotors’ Porsche has had some trouble, and Edwards has also passed the Edil Cris Ferrari.

Fassler’s next lap is a 2:17.0, while EvdP in #1 is in the 2:20s / 21s. Piccini and EvdP do get below 2:20, but that #5 Corvette is simply making up ground on pure pace. It’s rather like last year – except that the drivers in numbers 1 and 11 are well matched this year, but they have both come across a driver and a car in a different league.

This is what was left of the #23 Aston Martin - with the engine (obviously) completely detached.

07.45 and it's raining again - just a light drizzle. We think that the Peka and Phoenix Corvettes stayed on slicks, while most of the other GT1s pitted and changed tyres. Just after 08.00 Aguas went off at the top of Eau Rouge, and we think that the second AF Corse car is out - leaving a Porsche 1-2-3-4 - Lieb in 97, Lietz in 76, Edwards in 99 and Zani in 74, then the 63 and 52 Ferraris.

Yes, with binoculars, we can see that the #51 Ferrari is finished, with severe rear end damage. It joins the Enge and Alessi cars in the dead car park.

The seventeenth hour – and it’s getting really difficult to cover this, because we can’t see either pit lane. Lap 387 - the safety car pulls in as the Ferrari has been removed from its dangerous position, Fabrizio Gollin holding a little over a lap over Pedro Lamy in the #1 Maserati.

It’s going to be tricky for the drivers as they tackle the constantly changing positions.

A lap later and Lamy has unlapped himself, the Portugese driver seemingly more at ease at the damp circuit as he posts a 2.28 laptime against a 2.34 for Gollin. It’s a shame we can’t tell on what tyres the cars are out, that could explain the huge difference in times between the leading pair.

With the demise of the #51 Ferrari it’s a Porsche whitewash in GT2 with the IMSA Porsche now second and still in contention for the double after its Le Mans win. It also brought Tech 9 into contention, not a bad race from the team that started all the way from the back of the grid!

Five laps in and Lamy has clawed back 13 seconds. Gollin is ok in the first sector but loses loads of time in the other two. Could he possibly be on slicks whilst Lamy and Bouvy are on Inters? We’re trying to find out at the moment. Further down the field in sixth Olivier Beretta is almost 4 seconds quicker than Lamy. Impressive stuff from the Corvette man.

Right – with two pit lanes to cover, we’ve got some of the information. The Playteam MC12s are on inters., the #76 IMSA car pits, slicks are removed and inters. Fitted. Herr Singer tells us that the #97 BMS car is on inters. The #74 Ebimotors is on wets.

The #99 Tech 9 Porsche is on dry wets. At 08.25 the light drizzle becomes a little heavier.

Graham Goodwin is down in the bottom paddock, researching tyres there. He returns to report that the rain is now heavier.

#1 is on inters., #2 on wets. #3 seems to be on wets (but they don’t want to tell us), #4 is on inters and #5 is on wets.

Gollin has lost an awful lot of time in this hour (to 9 am), but the weather has turned in favour of wet-shod runners.

08.45
#5 Gollin wets
#1 Lamy inters – 1 min 42.. which shrinks to a minute within 10 mins.
#4 Bouvy inters
#2 Lemeret wets
#11 Piccini inters
#3 Beretta wets? Inters?
#16 Franchitti ?
#97
#76
#99
#18
#74

Lamy is still going faster on inters than Gollin on wets. The laps were 2:39 vs. 2:31 before the rain became heavier.

Just before 09.00, Lamy pits, presumably for wets. But we haven’t got the time or energy to visit the bottom pit lane again.

Gollin pits too. Lemeret is going well on wets, while Bouvy pits on his inters., for wets. Gollin stays in the car.

The cloud level has sunk dramatically, and it’s heavy overcast here now.

Corvette catch-up: Joost Custers explains that the SRT car lost time in the night after Coens hit the barrier and damaged a rear upright. Olivier Beretta also lost time, after contact with another car, and a slow lap back to the pits.

09.05, and Gollin leads Lamy by 50 seconds. Gollin a 2:44 on his first flying lap – Lamy’s same lap is a 2:42.

Gollin sets a 2:45, Lamy a 2:40… gap shrinks to 41.5 09.17, and the gap shrinks to 33 seconds.by 09.24 it is 27 – but almost stabilising, 2:37.0 for Gollin, a 2:36.2 for Lamy. Next lap and it’s cut to 22 seconds. Oddly, it was the Corvette that was so good in the opening hours, when the track was so green.. which might have led one to believe that the C6 would have been better than the MC12 in the wet.

Gollin then sets a 2:34 – and extends the gap by three seconds! Then it’s back to 22 – and up to 25 again. Traffic, presumably. The gap keeps seesawing between these two as lap times get slower and slower in the heavy rain.

Incidentally, the Vannelet Ferrari retakes the G3 lead from the Porsche driven by Paul van Splunteren. These two have been at it for ages now and no end in sight.

At 09:53 the #74 Ebimotors Porsche driven by Xavier Pompidou goes off in classic style, spinning at Eau Rouge and ending up in the barriers. It doesn’t look like the fourth placed car in the GT2 class will be able to continue. Still, thanks to good old Xavier to park the car in the one place that we can actually see from the media centre!!

All of a sudden the gap between Gollin and Lamy is reduced to eleven seconds as lap times reach three minutes. These are true Spa conditions: rain, wind and a hint of mist. The Maserati driver is clearly more comfortable at the moment.

Just at the top of the hour Gollin has pitted handing Lamy the lead. We can’t even remember when the Corvettte wasn’t in the lead. Who is going to take over from the Italian? A Lamy-Fassler fight would be good, wouldn’t it? Yup, Fassler it is – and a safety car is summoned, even though Pompidou’s Porsche has been moved.