The #10 Garage 59 McLaren of Tom Fleming, Marvin Kirchhöfer and Antares Au banished the pain of Imola with an epic LMGT3 class victory in today’s TotalEnergies 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps.
In a remarkable turnaround of emotions for the #10 Garage 59 entered McLaren GT3 Evo a second ever victory in the LMGT3 class for the British manufacturer was sealed just three weeks on from a late race retirement at Imola.
On that occasion Antares Au, Tom Fleming and Marvin Kirchhöfer were just 35 minutes from the win when they were forced to stop. But at Spa the overriding emotion was ecstasy as the trio rose from 15th on the LMGT3 starting grid.
The keys to their victory were both a patient and strong first two stints from Au, a scintillating middle part of the race from Fleming and then a consolidatory final few stints from Kirchhöfer.
That was despite knowing in the final hour that on the road class leader Alessio Rovera
In the #21 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo, sharing the car with François Hériau and Simon Mann.
They served a five-second post-race penalty for an unsafe pit release at the final stop, meaning they slipped from first to fourth in the final classification, ending their hopes of back-to-back wins at Spa.
The last of the four safety car periods meant that Rovera could not extend the gap over the chasing McLaren penalty and the McLaren crew won by 2.148 seconds from the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage entry of Ian James, Zacharie Robichon and Mattia Drudi.
Completing the podium was the #92 Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo of Yasser Shahin, Riccardo Pera and Richard Lietz. They fought back from a gravelly moment for Shahin when he was clipped by the #38 Cadillac in the opening hour. Pera executed a sensational triple stint to allow Lietz a crack at the podium, which was confirmed after the Ferrari’s penalty was applied.
Proton Competition’s pair of Ford Mustangs were in strong contention in the early phase of the race with Eric Powell grabbing the lead in the #77 car with an incisive move on the #78 Akkodis ASP Team Lexus RC F GT3 of Tom Van Rompuy at Eau Rouge.
But just a few laps later, Powell spun off at the Stavelot corner, negating his hard work and triggering the first safety car period of the race.
The sister #88 Proton Ford Mustang of Stefano Gattuso, Giammarco Levorato and Logan Sargent then moved into the lead after the first round of pit-stops and looked to be building a strong challenge for victory, before it picked up a pair of drive-through penalties for multiple track-limit violations and was consigned to a lowly 12th.
The pole-sitting #78 Lexus RC F GT3 of Van Rompuy and team-mates Hadrien David and Esteban Masson was in contention for at least a podium position until the final hour, when it slowed down on track with an apparent technical issue.
Gattuso sought some solace by taking the prestigious Goodyear Wingfoot Award, which is voted for by WEC fans who appreciated his outstanding performance.
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