24 Hours of Spa: Porsche Achieves Historic Victory Starting from the Pit, Not the Track

The Lionspeed GP team achieved a massive comeback to take victory in the 79th running of the traditional 24 Hours of Spa. The Porsche 911 GT3 R shared by Ricardo Feller, Thomas Preining, and Bastian Buus had to start from the box lane (pit exit) because it actually made a false start. However, the team overcame all obstacles by demonstrating incredible strategy and driver performance from the beginning to the end of the race. This result went down in history as a legendary comeback story in racing history. This victory, which refreshed the prestige of the Porsche brand in one of the most important legs of GT3 racing in the post-pandemic era, became concrete proof of the team's perseverance. A car starting from off the track climbing to the top in the world's most competitive GT3 field created a huge echo across the entire automotive world.

While a record 132,000 spectators watched the race, this victory stands out as undoubtedly the greatest achievement in club history for Lionspeed GP. The three young and talented drivers; Feller, Preining, and Buus, obtained their first 24 Hours of Spa victory in their careers, writing their names in golden letters on the world GT3 stage. Additionally, this result carries the distinction of being the first overall classification victory for the 992 generation Porsche 911 GT3 R model at the Spa Francorchamps circuit. Since the German manufacturer's last victory in this legendary event dates back to 2020, a six-year drought for the brand also ended with this win. With this result, Lionspeed GP took their second Pro class overall victory in the GT World Challenge Europe series to their club museum.

The number 80 Porsche quickly overcame the disadvantage of starting from the pit in the early stages of the race and began to pull away from its rivals. As night conditions came into play, full course yellow (FCY) and safety car periods increased on the track; Lionspeed GP managed to settle into the leadership position by reading this chaos much better than their rivals. The 911 GT3 R demonstrated a significantly faster and more consistent performance than its rivals in night driving conditions. The race actually turned into a fierce sprint race in the last three and a half hours, and the Lionspeed car solidified its lead by pulling the plug an hour early during the pit-stop cycles. When the race was restarted for the eleventh time, 2023 DTM champion Thomas Preining took over the lead behind the wheel and comfortably led while his rivals behind fought each other for second place.

The battle for second place featured a breathtaking triple collision; the Winward Mercedes driven by Lucas Auer, Maro Engel, and Luca Stolz, the AF Corse Ferrari shared by Alessio Rovera, Tommaso Mosca, and Nicklas Nielsen, and the Schumacher CLRT Porsche driven by Ayhancan Güven and his teammates did not give up until the final laps. In the finale, Mercedes stayed ahead of Ferrari by just one-tenth of a second, while Porsche missed the bottom step of the podium by a very small margin. Especially the number 51 Ferrari experienced ups and downs throughout the race; although it was the most dominant car in the sweltering heat early on, a tire blowout in the fourth hour of the race caused the team to go a lap down. Although the Italian team managed to regain the lap with clever strategies, they suffered a second tire blowout during the night hours, getting wounded once again. These factors caused Ferrari to lose the crushing pace it had at the beginning of the race.

While the duel between Mercedes and Ferrari in the final section made the podium battle difficult, it allowed the leading Lionspeed Porsche to break away from the race and cross the flag comfortably. Schumacher CLRT Porsche driver Ayhancan Güven, on the other hand, marked another controversial moment of the race with his fierce intra-brand battle with the Boutsen VDS Porsche driver. The contact following a braking attack at the La Source corner before the tire change damaged the rival car, weakening their podium chances. When the race restarted, Maro Engel also got stuck in traffic and lost about three seconds, which helped Lionspeed increase the gap even further, especially in the final hours. As the teams behind fifth place lacked the pace to race for the lead, the race actually turned into a battle between four cars.