With 13 brands on the grid, the anniversary edition of the Spa 24 Hours promised to be a classic. After four wins since 2011, Audi Sport customer racing aimed to clinch its fifth overall victory. “Unfortunately it just wasn’t quite enough this year,” said Chris Reinke, Head of Audi Sport customer racing. “A couple of hours before the start we had to load 15 kilograms of ballast weight into all the cars. Although we were able to set a few quick lap times, we were unable to fight for victory over the distance. Then in the end two BMW won from two Audi and two Mercedes-AMG.” Following overall victory in the Intercontinental GT Challenge season opener in Australia in February, Audi at least managed its second win in this category, for which 18 participants were registered.
Audi Sport Team Saintéloc emerged through the many caution periods in a favorable position and generally performed strongly. The two Germans and 2017 winners Haase and Winkelhock and their Belgian teammate Vervisch had been in with a chance of finishing on the podium since Sunday morning. With third place within grasp, Vervisch rolled slowly, due to a very close fuel calculation, to his final pit stop on the last drops of fuel and was beaten in the brand internal fight by Team Montaplast by Land-Motorsport. Wolfgang Land’s team, a former class winner at Spa, returned to the 24-hour race with Audi this year. The brothers Kelvin and Sheldon van der Linde and their Swiss teammate Jeffrey Schmidt finished third after excellent drives from all of them.