Lionspeed GP claimed victory at the 79th running of the Spa 24 Hours after starting from pit lane, beating the #48 Winward Mercedes and the #51 AF Corse Ferrari to the top step of the podium in front of a record crowd of 132,000 spectators.
The triumph marked the biggest achievement in team history for Lionspeed GP. Drivers Ricardo Feller, Thomas Preining, and Bastian Buus took the chequered flag after an incredible comeback race in which they had originally started from the pit lane.
The result marks the first overall victory for the 992-generation Porsche 911 GT3 R at Spa, and the German manufacturer's first win at the event since 2020.
With all three drivers celebrating their maiden victories at the world’s biggest GT3 race, it was the second overall Pro-class win for Lionspeed in GT World Challenge Europe, following its Sprint Cup success in race two at Brands Hatch.
Starting from the pit lane, the Porsche steadily sliced through the field during the opening stages. The team then capitalised on a flurry of night-time full-course yellows and safety cars to position itself at the front of the field, as the 911 GT3 R (992) grew increasingly competitive with every passing hour.
The race ultimately came down to a final three-and-a-half-hour sprint. The Lionspeed entry had already established the lead an hour prior during a cycle of pit stops.
When the race restarted for the eleventh time, Preining immediately pulled clear while his pursuers fought hard over P2, allowing the former DTM champion to build a comfortable gap, which only had to be managed through the final three hours.
The battle for second place was fierce, featuring a thrilling three-way scrap between the #48 Winward Mercedes of Lucas Auer, Maro Engel and Luca Stolz, the #51 AF Corse Ferrari of Alessio Rovera, Tommaso Mosca and Nicklas Nielsen, and the #22 Schumacher CLRT Porsche of Ayhancan Guven, Matt Campbell and Frederic Makowiecki.
Double puncture for Ferrari
The #51 endured a rollercoaster of a race. In the scorching heat at the start of the race, the Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo was the undisputed pacesetter. However, a puncture just four and a half hours in dealt the team a big blow, costing it one and a half laps.
The Italian squad managed to climb its way back onto the lead lap during the night with clever tactics. During the transition from FCY to safety car, the #51 car bypassed a pit stop under FCY to overtake the leader on track. By waiting until the field had bunched up behind the safety car to make its stop, it successfully remained on the lead lap.
Just as it rejoined the fight for the lead, Mosca suffered another puncture in a duel with Luca Stolz. Although this second setback kept the car on the lead lap—and the final safety car brought it right back into contention — the dominant pace of the opening hours had vanished as ambient temperatures dropped below 30 degrees Celsius in the closing stages.
With one hour remaining, Rovera forced his way past Guven at Les Combes with a robust elbows-out move. AF Corse then attempted to undercut the ‘”Mamba” with an early final pit stop, but Rovera emerged just behind the #87 Winward Mercedes. Unsurprisingly, Gabriele Piana proved far from cooperative, making the Ferrari work hard to get past and allowing the #48 to stay ahead.
Intra-Brand Drama for Porsche
Prior to this, Guven had found himself at the centre of controversy following a fierce, stint-long intra-brand battle with Morris Schuring in the #2 Boutsen VDS Porsche.
On the final lap before their scheduled pit stops, Guven launched a late divebomb into La Source. The move resulted in contact that damaged the front bumper of Schuring’s car, effectively knocking the #2 entry out of podium contention.
Meanwhile, the "Mamba" showed competitive pace across all track conditions. However, Maro Engel got caught behind the lapped #30 WRT BMW of Amaury Cordeel at the final restart, instantly losing three seconds to Preining.
The subsequent in-fighting with the Ferrari and the Schumacher CLRT Porsche cost too much time, allowing the Lionspeed Porsche to escape up the road.
None of the cars finishing from fifth place downward had the pace to challenge for the victory. The #50 AF Corse Ferrari of Arthur Leclerc, Lilou Wadoux and Sean Gelael recovered from a minor scare and light contact with the barriers on Saturday evening to finish fifth, but lacked the ultimate firepower of its sister car.
Behind them, the #46 WRT BMW of Dan Harper, Max Hesse and Valentino Rossi crossed the line in sixth. The entire fleet of BMW M4 GT3 Evos lacked that final fraction of speed this weekend.
After the #46 hit the front on Sunday morning during the mandatory technical pit stops, it was unable to defend the position. The #98 Rowe BMW of Augusto Farfus, Jake Dennis and Raffaele Marciello finished ninth, while the #32 car of Kelvin van der Linde, Jordan Pepper and Charles Weerts eventually ended up 12th after suffering an issue with oil and power steering pump on the final lap.
Between the BMWs, the #34 Walkenhorst Aston Martin of Jamie Day, Christian Krognes and Henrique Chaves came in seventh place. The Aston's race almost ended in a major first-lap pileup, but Day managed to limp back to the pit lane.
The team repaired the Vantage without any lingering performance deficits, allowing the car to run almost continuously in the top ten, even if its ultimate pace was not enough to challenge the leaders.
High attrition in the Pro Class
The "Mamba" ended up as the lone flag-bearer for Mercedes-AMG, as the brand's other two Pro entries failed to go the distance. The #17 GetSpeed Mercedes of Maxime Martin, Maximilian Gotz and Fabian Schiller endured a nightmare weekend that concluded after just three and a half hours.
The #17's troubles began in qualifying when all of its lap times were deleted. Forced to start from the back, the AMG got tangled up in midfield traffic and made contact with the #177 Mercedes, forcing both cars into retirement with terminal damage.
Prior to the crash, the #17 had already been hit with penalties and a mandatory pit stop due to a malfunctioning transponder.
The #3 Verstappen Racing Mercedes of Dani Juncadella, Chris Lulham and Jules Gounon ran solidly in the leading group until mid-race, when a bottleneck at the pit lane entrance triggered the beginning of the end.
A stranded car blocked the pit entry, causing a traffic jam that saw the #3 AMG rear-end the #51 Ferrari. The team retired the car four hours later due to secondary damage.
The #34 Walkenhorst machine also ended up as the sole British Pro car left standing. The #7 Comtoyou Aston Martin of Mattia Drudi, Marco Sorensen and Nicki Thiim looked slightly stronger until Thiim spun out at Raidillon on Sunday morning.
The Dane famously pulled off a spectacular 360-degree spin at the exact same spot in 2022 after making contact with Jules Gounon, but this time luck was not on his side: a heavy impact brought an immediate end to his race.
The #64 HRT Ford Mustang of Arjun Maini, Fabio Scherer and Thomas Drouet looked impressive during the night, leading the race on an alternative strategy and maintaining a solid top-five presence.
The Mustang’s charge was derailed by two consecutive setbacks: first, a 60-second stop-and-go penalty for speeding under FCY, followed three hours later by a terminal mechanical failure.
It was also a weekend to forget for McLaren, with Garage 59 entering two potential front-runners. The #59 of Joseph Loake, Dean MacDonald and Marvin Kirchhofer retired in the seventh hour with suspension failure.
The sister #58 car of Thomas Fleming, Louis Prette and Oliver Goethe was leading the Gold Cup and harbouring overall podium ambitions until shortly after the halfway mark, when Goethe brought the 720S GT3 Evo to the pits with severe front-end damage after colliding with a Porsche. The resulting radiator leak cost the team 27 laps in repairs.
Lamborghini endured a thoroughly disappointing weekend, as the new Temerario GT3 never found its sweet spot. The #96 Rutronik Lamborghini of Luca Engstler, Marco Mapelli and Patric Niederhauser crossed the line three laps down in 19th.
The #63 Grasser Lamborghini of Franck Perera, Maximilian Paul and Mirko Bortolotti saw its hopes evaporate in the sixth hour when the car suffered engine trouble. Following hours of extensive repairs, the team completed a brief installation lap before officially retiring the car.
The lone Pro-Cup Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II also didn’t reach the finish line. The #84 Eastalent Audi of Simon Reicher, Markus Winkelhock and Christopher Haase executed a brilliant strategy to maximize championship points at the six-hour mark, but subsequently fell multiple laps down before Markus Winkelhock suffered a heavy crash on the exit of Blanchimont during the night.
Class winners at the 2026 Spa 24 Hours
Pro-Cup: Lionspeed-Porsche #80 (Feller/Preining/Buus) – P1
Gold-Cup: Rowe-BMW #998 (de Wilde/Tramnitz/Klingmann) – P11
Silver-Cup: Rinaldi-Ferrari #45 (Duran/Medler/Balzan/Perel) – P14
Bronze-Cup: Kessel-Ferrari #74 (Blattner/Tuck/Jaubert/Marschall) – P10
Pro-Am-Cup: JMR-Corvette #0 (J. Ibrahim/A.B. Ibrahim/Love/Green) – P29
