Alpine Captures 6H Spa Lead at Halfway Point

Photo: Julien Delfosse/DPPI

Jules Gounon gave Alpine the race lead at the halfway point of the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, with the race under safety car after an incident involving Sean Gelael and Matteo Cairoli.

Gounon, piloting the No. 36 Alpine A424, held a lead of roughly a second and half over the No. 50 Ferrari 499P of Miguel Molina when Gelael and Cairoli came together at Les Combes.

The No. 95 United Autosports McLaren 720S GT3 Evo and the No. 60 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo battled into the corner, with the latter taking to the runoff before making contact with Gelael when rejoining.

This pitched the McLaren into the barriers, bringing out the safety car for the second time in the race.

At the time of the intervention, Gounon sat ahead of both works-entered Ferraris at the front of the field, having used an undercut strategy to capture the race lead.

Fred Makowiecki had run in second place for a large part of the first hour when he came in to hand over to Gounon, with Nicklas Nielsen following suit a lap later to be replaced by Molina.

When the Spaniard rejoined for his outlap, he was met at pit exit by Gounon, who stormed past the No. 50 Ferrari and completed the pass on the run into Eau Rouge.

Antonio Giovinazzi and Robin Frijns held third and fourth in the No. 51 Ferrari and No. 20 BMW M Hybrid V8, respectively, having engaged in a lively battle for the final podium spot with both Peugeot 9X8s.

Peugeot drivers Paul di Resta and Loic Duval briefly held third and fourth, with Duval grabbing that position in spectacular fashion when he drafted and then split Giovinazzi and Frijns to pass into Les Combes.

However, Giovinazzi soon powered back into second and the Peugeots fell behind the leading BMW during the same round of stops that saw Alpine’s Gounon capture the race lead.

The No. 93 Peugeot held fifth at halfway with Jean-Eric Vergne a the wheel, ahead of the sister machine of Malthe Jakobsen and the No. 7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid driven by Kamui Kobayashi.

Penalties in the opening three hours notably caused both the No. 15 BMW and No. 35 Alpine to drop back.

The BMW received a double drive through penalty for both speeding in the pits and a virtual safety car infringement, while the Alpine was also ordered to complete a trip down the pits for the latter transgression.

The No. 83 Ferrari, meanwhile, rejoined the race after spending one hour and 26 minutes in the pits due to turbo issues and is 35 laps off the lead.

In LMGT3, penalties for a number of frontrunners shook up the order as Heart of Racing Team’s Zach Robichon led the class.

The No. 27 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo fronted a 1-2 for the British marque as the safety car was called as the No. 10 Racing Spirit of Leman sat in second with Eduardo Barrichello at the wheel.

Rui Andrade and Rahel Frey ran in third and fourth for TF Sport and Iron Dames, with the latter squad having briefly led when Celia Martin passed Heart of Racing’s Ian James at Les Combes.

However, a longer pitstop for the No. 85 Porsche 911 GT3 R dropped the car behind its closest rivals.

Fifth-placed Riccardo Pera was still due to serve a ten-second penalty after the No. 92 Porsche was involved in an incident with Ryan Hardwick in the wheel as the American racer hit Iron Lynx driver Martin Berry at the final chicane.

The No. 46 BMW, meanwhile, was penalized for speeding in the pits while the No. 77 Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3 was found to have repeatedly exceeded track limits. Both cars were given a drive through penalty.