Glory and drama for Barwell Motorsport-Aston Martin in the early stages of 24H BARCELONA
At noon, 56 cars took the start for the 16th running of the 24H BARCELONA – Trofeu Fermí Vélez at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. A heavy downpour two hours before the start of the race made the tyre choice a difficult affair for many of the teams, but as the racing line was largely dry already, slick tyres turned out to be the right decision. Stefan Mücke, who had put the number 1-Barwell Motorsport-Aston Martin (Poole/Abra/Senna/Mücke) on pole position, built up a comfortable lead during the first hour of the race, but then got stuck on the track just before the one-hour mark after the left rear wheel had come off his car. That led to the first neutralisation of the race and handed the lead to Gianluca de Lorenzi in the De Lorenzi Racing-Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 (#3, de Lorenzi/Nearn/Breukers/de Heus).
Two teams were non-starters: the number 6-Bremer Racing-Ferrari 430 GT3 Scuderia (Bremer/Patrizi/Bergmann/Costa) due to a broken gearbox and the number 34-Top Autoteile Racing-BMW E46 WTCC (Schelp/Schwager/Molenaar/Krumbach), who were fastest qualifiers in the A5 class, due to a broken driveshaft. The Guttroff Motorsport-Corvette (#16, Guttroff/Kiesch/Beisel/Klasen) had already been sidelined after a crash in pre-event testing on Thursday.
The first 30 minutes of the race saw plenty of action in the pit lane as various teams came in to have their rain tyres replaced by slicks. Among them were the Stadler Motorsport-Porsche (#7, Matter/Amstutz/Siedler/Baumann) and the Hofor Racing-Mercedes-Benz (#4, Kroll/Eggimann/Heyer/Frankenhout), who were third and fourth as they came in after the third lap. Later on, they both moved back up through the ranks. Just before the two-hour mark, the De Lorenzi Racing-Mercedes turned into the pits for a driver change, handing the overall and A6 class lead to the Stadler-Porsche. The Car Collection-Mercedes (#2, Schmidt/Mattschull/Schmersal/Edelhoff/ Kirchhoff) is second, followed by the De Lorenzi and Hofor-Mercedes cars. The Barwell-Aston Martin is back on track again after repair, but is 16 laps down.
The other class leaders after two hours are:
997: Speedlover-Porsche 996 Cup (#15, Richard/Diez-Villarroel/Rivas)
A2: Team Sally Racing-Renault Clio (#49, Sally/Gotsche/Obel/Christensen/Borum)
A3T: Memac Ogilvy Duel Racing-SEAT Leon Supercopa (#42, Moutran/Moutran/Moutran/Quaife/Kaye)
A5: Tischner Motorsport-BMW E46 (#29, Tischner/Becker/Trautwein/Tischner)
D1: TTC Racing-Volkswagen Golf V TDI (#60, Schiliger/Kempf/Hans)
D2: Saxon Motorsport-BMW 135D GTR (#56, Barrow/Corbett/Barrow)
Latest information, live-timing, photos and video footage can be found at live.24hseries.com. There will also be regular updates on Twitter (@24HSERIES, hashtag #24HBCN) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/24hseries). A highlights show of the 24H BARCELONA will be broadcast on Motors TV on October 6 at 21.00 hrs CET.
